IELTS Reading: Having a laugh
This is an academic Passage 3 about the importance of laughter.
Dec 05, 2021•29 min
IELTS with Fiona: a comprehensive guide to IELTS
Join me for a weekly talk-through of IELTS topics to help you learn about the issues, vocabulary, tips and strategies you need to prepare.
Find all my tips on my website ieltsetc.com and join the Members Academy for all the downloads, step-by-step online courses, and support to get you a Band 7+ in the #ielts test.
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Episodes
⭐️IELTS tips⭐️ Nov 9th - 20th
In this episode I go through a week of tips about: "is pissed" vs "ears pierced", PEEL paragraphs, Jacinda Ardern and New Zealand accents ("bed" vs "bid"), Bruce Willis, The Sixth Sense and modals of deduction ("He must be a teacher"), Why Martin Luther King didn't say "I've got a dream", Are you feeling OVERWHELMED?, Cost vs value, When "I will" sounds like "ul", Hey! and other offensive words, Third Conditional in the LISTENING test, When was the last time you had a barbie? Get all the daily p...
Nov 27, 2021•30 min
⭐️IELTS tips⭐️ Oct 27th - Nov 8th 2021
This is my weekly round-up of tips from the "What's New" tab on my free website: ieltsetc.com In this episode we look at Pronunciation mazes by Matt Hancock (the 'ou' and 'ow' sounds and spelling), What's the opposite of 'must'?, "It's not worth it", Listening tricks and synonyms "at least" and "a minimum of", Is it ok to use "etc" in formal writing?, Modal verb meanings e.g "That should be ok", fifTEEN versus FIFty (15/50) in the listening test, A GREENhouse vs a green HOUSE (word stress), How ...
Nov 24, 2021•22 min
🏆What's the best online IELTS course?🏆
That's a tough question. It's so hard for anyone to measure the quality and effectiveness of an IELTS course objectively unless they've taken all of the IELTS courses available! So here's a quick checklist of things to look for in a course. Go to the blog to download the checklist; I designed it to help you make an informed decision. https://ieltsetc.com/2021/11/best-online-ielts-course/...
Nov 15, 2021•39 min
⭐️IELTS tips⭐️ Oct 17th - 27th
Here's the latest round-up of all my IELTS Daily Tips blog that you can find on my website. In this blog we go through and revise: Have or get something done How to pronounce 'ative' How to pronounce 'able' Thinking critically Research vs researchers Economic vs economical deteriorate vs get worse instill vs install funnest vs the most fun Get all the tips on my website homepage ("What's New") https://ieltsetc.com
Nov 05, 2021•28 min
⭐️IELTS tips⭐️: a weekly summary
I'm trying out a new way of sharing my tips and advice for IELTS. If you go to the 'What's new' tab on my website, you'll find a daily tip: https://app.getbeamer.com/ieltswithfiona/en You can leave a comment there and ask questions if you need help or if you have any requests. In this podcast I cover the last 7 days of tips: Should I appeal my IELTS score? https://app.getbeamer.com/ieltswithfiona/en/daily-tip-should-i-appeal-my-ielts-score Third Conditional and 'be able to' https://app.getbeamer...
Oct 17, 2021•29 min
Things you need to know before you buy an online IELTS Course 🤑
Have you ever been ripped off, conned, scammed, tricked, duped or just misled when buying an online IELTS course? In this blog and podcast, I've outlined the 10 'red flags' that you need to know about before you decide which course provider to go with. Here are are some common tactics that you may not even notice, and they range from being simply 'misleading' to illegal. For more information and examples that I've collected over 5 years, head to my blog, where you might like to leave a comment. ...
Sep 20, 2021•49 min
IELTS Reading: Henry Moore (TFNG Bootcamp Day 1) 🗿
The Members Academy Reading Bootcamp started today (you can still join - it's just $28 and includes 28 days of both live and recorded lessons). This week's focus is on True False Not Given questions, so here's a taster of today's lesson. This is an Academic Passage 1 about a sculptor called Henry Moore. I try to get my students to make educated guesses about TFNG questions by the way they're written, and this text is a perfect example of how you can follow a hunch to get the right answer pretty ...
Sep 06, 2021•17 min
IELTS Reading: Attitudes to AI 🤖
This is an Academic Passage 3 Part 3 (Book 16) , so it's tough. In this lesson we'll look at how the language that you learn for Task 2 will help you understand the Reading, and how Reading academic texts like this will help you improve your Writing. Some of the points I mention include: - Word formation https://ieltsetc.com/2020/06/word-formation/ - The 'marc' system for pie charts (Makes up, accounts for, represents, consists of) https://youtu.be/bsBKQPpVs5g - Willing to vs want https://ieltse...
Aug 22, 2021•45 min
How to use idioms in IELTS
Are you using the right idiom in the right place with the right person and the right pronunciation? To use an idiom correctly there are so many factors that you have to take into account, for example who uses this idiom (age, gender, profession, location)? when do they use this idiom? (context) why do they choose to use this idiom (humour, anger, sarcasm, style)? how often do people use this idiom (once in a blue moon?) In my latest blog, I talk about 3 key factors to help you use idioms correct...
Aug 13, 2021•26 min
IELTS Listening: Stoicism 🏛️
This episode is a Part 4 Listening about an ancient philosophy called Stoicism (don't worry if you've never heard of it - the Listening will explain everything). It's a gapfill summary (one word only) and we also discuss: DESPITE (+ noun or + ing verb or + the fact that) US and UK spellings (do they matter in IELTS?) how my 2-minute Pronunciation feedback can fix a common problem related to your first language (in this case, Spanish). Review the grammar of 'despite' and 'in spite of' on my blog....
Jul 19, 2021•22 min
IELTS Reading: 🏥Back to the future of skyscraper design.
This passage 2 Academic IELTS Reading is a problem-solution structure. The problem : air-conditioning units generate 'spectacular and largely unnecessary energy use and carbon emissions'. The solution: use natural ventilation, as they did in 19th-century hospitals. This IELTS Reading is packed full of useful vocab like 'to squander energy' (= to waste) and 'it uses a FRACTION of the electricity/at a FRACTION of the energy cost' (=a small or tiny part, amount, or proportion of something). There w...
Jul 04, 2021•27 min
IELTS Listening: The history of coffee ☕️
This is a Section 4 Listening. I chose this Listening in order to show you why hyphens are NOT important in Listening gap-fill summaries. There are 3 main types of words in gapfill summaries: 1) Words ending with a suffix like '-tion' or '-sion' 2) Commodities or materials like wool, gold, tea or sugar. 3) Irregular words like plurals ending in y/ies or irregular word forms like poor/poverty. Get the full article about hyphens on my blog: https://ieltsetc.com/2021/06/how-to-use-hyphens-in-ielts/...
Jun 25, 2021•28 min
IELTS Reading: The Effects of Noise 🙉
I had a special request for this Academic Passage 3 because it's difficult, but honestly, it's a very early test (Book 7) and is just badly-written. I think the reading itself is very useful as an example of academic writing, with lots you can learn from it, but the questions are simply not good - you can guess 3 of them without even needing to understand what they mean (a sure sign of a bad test), and there is too much similar language (very few synonyms required). If you struggled with this on...
Jun 07, 2021•29 min
IELTS Writing Feedback: improving your Task 2 essays with 40 keywords
When you get IELTS Writing feedback from your teacher, you should be able to see why you are not achieving your desired score. But this feedback is only useful if you understand exactly what the teacher is talking about when they are pointing out areas you need to work on. Writing Feedback about LANGUAGE is usually easy to understand – most people know the language related to grammar (e.g. wrong tense, article missing, third person -s), spelling and punctuation. But Writing feedback related to C...
May 16, 2021•30 min
IELTS Reading: Attitudes to language
This is an Academic Part 1 text. The text and subject matter is difficult but the questions (YNNG) are NOT. In fact, in this episode I will show you how you can mostly guess the answers without reading or understanding very much of the text. Get more help with Yes, No, Not Given questions on my website . If you'd like to contribute to the upkeep of my website and podcast, you can buy me a coffee here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/fionawattam Many thanks Fiona...
May 03, 2021•25 min
IELTS Reading: What is exploration?
Cambridge Book 15 Test 1 Passage 3
Apr 11, 2021•31 min
IELTS Listening: 'Street Play Scheme' ⛹️♂️⛹🏻♀️🚗
This is a really useful Part 2 IELTS Listening (Book 15) about a community that closed their road to traffic so that the children could play safely outside. It practises Multiple Choice and Choosing from a list. Useful vocab: 'the idea caught on' = the idea became very popular in other places 'give it a go' = try it Useful grammar: Present Perfect vs Past Simple 'The scheme's been up and running for 3 years' = 'The Street Paly Scheme first took place 3 years ago'. 'Be able to' with conditionals ...
Mar 29, 2021•27 min
IELTS Reading TFNG: Alexander Henderson 📸📸📸
This is a nice and easy Academic Reading Part 1 (great for GT too). It goes in chronological order, so it's easy to find information from dates, names and places, and there are 2 sets of questions (TFNG and gapfill). If you're aiming for 7 and you can get 10/13 correct in less than 20 minutes, you're doing very well. Check your band score here: https://ieltsetc.com/ielts-band-score-calculator/ Get the conditionals review here: https://ieltsetc.com/2021/02/conditionals-review/ Learn about 'willin...
Feb 14, 2021•22 min
IELTS Listening: 🦣🦣🦣Woolly mammoths on St Paul's Island
Today's Listening is a 6/10 for difficulty. It's a Part 3 Listening with multiple choice and matching from a list. Useful vocabulary and synonyms: surprising = amazing got cut off = became isolated exact = precise contact = get in touch with make detailed notes = write down all the ideas check timing = make sure we won't overrun add personal opinions = give your own viewpoint Join the Conditionals Bootcamp here. https://members.ieltsetc.com/conditionals/ Get the Signals and Signposts lesson here...
Feb 01, 2021•27 min
IELTS Reading/Writing: Driverless Cars 🚘
This is a really really useful passage to read because of how it can help your WRITING. The passage itself is not difficult, but it is jam-packed full of excellent examples of Formal Academic Writing so if you have this reading at home, go through it carefully. - 'PEEL' paragraphs - Hedging https://ieltsetc.com/2020/12/hedging-in-academic-writing/ - Linking words https://ieltsetc.com/2019/07/ielts-complex-sentences/ - Noun forms - Conditionals https://ieltsetc.com/2020/03/ielts-conditionals/ - C...
Jan 11, 2021•30 min
IELTS Reading: Motivational Factors and the hospitality industry 👩🍳🧑🍳
This is an extremely difficult Academic Reading Passage 3. It took me 30 minutes to find the answers even with the answer sheet in front of me. What can we learn from a text like this? Background knowledge and vocabulary will aid understanding Strategies such as locating the researchers' names will speed up your responses Every little helps - 2 of my recent daily tasks from the Writing Challenge will help you break down the dense text 1) affect vs effect https://ieltsetc.com/2020/12/affect-vs-ef...
Dec 29, 2020•29 min
IELTS Advent Challenge Tasks 🎄1 - 12
No time to do my Advent Challenge? This podcast (watch the video version on www.YouTube.com/fionawattam) talks you through the past 12 days, so you'll get up and running really quickly! It's never too late to start - just go to my website: https://ieltsetc.com/ielts-advent-adventure/ and open the windows which will take you through to all the links. Come and post your sentences on Facebook, where I will check them every day: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ieltsAtoZ If you'd like to say thanks a...
Dec 12, 2020•41 min
IELTS Listening Part 3: Children's Literature Course 📚
Is this Listening more difficult than usual? I got a special request from Elango in my Members Academy, and yes I think it is a tricky one! I had to read the tapescript very carefully to figure out the answer to Question 27, and it even required a bit of background knowledge (possibly true of Question 28 too!). Apart from that, this is a really good one to practise listening for: - Signals and Signposts: https://ieltsetc.com/2019/09/ielts-listening-how-to-recognise-signals-and-signposts/ - Synon...
Nov 25, 2020•30 min
IELTS Reading: Why fairy tales are really scary tales 🧚♀️👻
I had a special request from Isabella on Instagram today 👋🇧🇷. She asked me to look at a really difficult text (yes, this one's 9/10!). It's an Academic Passage 3 and it follows the Reading Type 2 structure (discursive) which goes like this - Title: asks a question ( Why? The answer is not what everyone thinks). 1. Old theory: Everyone thinks fairy tales have endured because the STORIES give us WARNINGS about life e.g. Little Red Riding Hood. 2. New theory: Everyone is wrong. There's another r...
Oct 24, 2020•30 min
IELTS Reading: 🚴♀️Bike-sharing schemes around the world
Do you have a bike-sharing scheme where you live? In London there are the so-called 'Boris bikes' (named after Boris Johnson, who launched them in 2010 after being inspired by the success of a similar scheme in Paris, which is mentioned in this reading). This is a Section 2 Academic Text with 3 types of questions: Matching Statements, Choosing from a List and Gapfill. So whenever there's a lot to do, the text is slightly easier. This is a chronological text (in order of time) and is suitable for...
Oct 18, 2020•30 min
IELTS Listening: The hunt for sunken settlements and ancient shipwrecks 🚢⚓️⚱️
This is a difficult Section 4, but if you listen to my podcast regularly, you will be very familiar with this common IELTS topic! It's about marine archaeology, the use of technology to find ancient shipwrecks and building under the sea, and the lessons researchers can learn about how ancient civilisations lived. In this episode I refer to similar IELTS Reading/Listening texts, so you can see how important it is to learn the vocabulary that is relevant to so many IELTS texts. Find the Modals of ...
Oct 10, 2020•30 min
IELTS Reading GT Part 2: Border crossing and Dealing with absence in the workplace
Both texts are gapfill summaries. The first one gives you practice with summary Flow Charts ( IELTS 28-Day Planner Day 12 ) and the second covers the common topic of how to deal with absence in the workplace (good practice if you never usually read this kind of document). Get more General Training Reading tips on my website. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook for daily practice. #ielts #ieltstest #ieltscourse...
Oct 03, 2020•20 min
IELTS Listening: Agricultural programme in Mozambique 👩🏽🌾🌾🐝🎣
Listen out for the 5 most common gapfill types in this Part 4 gapfill on the very common topics of Agriculture and Water (28-Day Planner Week 1). Practise these topics on my website: https://ieltsetc.com/?s=agriculture Watch my YouTube 5-minute Vocab review of Agriculture here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha1KIJfkglA&t=56s And here's the Honeybee Listening I mentioned: https://ieltsetc.com/2018/08/ielts-listening-honeybees-australia/ Get the 28-Day Planner here - do NOT let it get lost i...
Sep 22, 2020•30 min
IELTS Reading: Nutmeg - a valuable spice 🌰🥜
This is an Academic Reading Part 1 (so it's good for GT too). The structure is chronological (in order of time) which helps you locate the answers more easily. It's also very similar to a text on my website: The Story Of Silk, which you can find here: https://ieltsetc.com/2018/12/ielts-reading-story-silk/ and I refer to last week's podcast about The Eucalyptus Tree to show you how similar they are in terms of the gapfill answers. https://anchor.fm/ieltsetc/episodes/IELTS-Listening-The-Eucalyptus...
Sep 13, 2020•29 min
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