IELTS Test dates Istanbul 2014

IELTS Vocabulary - Festivals and Culture

IELTS Vocabulary on the topic of Festivals and Culture:

VOCABULARY	DEFINITON	EXAMPLE
Pageant	A show that happens outside in which people dress and act as if they are from a time in history.	The school organized pageants in the village to raise funds in order to start a museum.
Feast	A large meal, especially to celebrate something special.	The family made a festive meal during for Thanksgiving.
Rituals	An activity or a set of actions that are always done in the same way or at the same time, sometimes as part of a religion.	Coffee and the newspaper are generally part of many people’s morning rituals.
Tradition	a way of behaving that has continued for a long time in a group of people or a society.	There is a strong tradition of local folk dances in various parts of Turkey.
Celebration	To do something enjoyable because it is a special day such as birthdays, religious festivities, New Year’s or because something good has happened.	Do you celebrate New Year’s Day in your country?

IELTS and TOEFL band score comparisons

TOEFL Score	IELTS Band
0–31	0–4
32–34	4.5
35–45	5
46–59*	5.5
60–78*	6
79–93*	6.5
94–101*	7
102–109*	7.5
110–114	8
115–117	8.5
118–120	9

* Indicates score comparison ranges with the highest degree of confidence

Source: http://www.ets.org/toefl/institutions/scores/compare/ 

IELTS VOCABULARY - Holidays / Travel

HOLIDAYS / TRAVEL

VOCABULARY	DEFINITION	EXAMPLE
Mass tourism	Mass tourism is the act of visiting a destination with large amounts of people at one time, such as Antalya and the effect that large amounts of people can have on a particular destination in terms of local economy, environment etc.	Mass tourism is a problem which needs urgent attention in particular to the environment.
Ecotourism	Holidays for people who would like to help local people and not damage the environment.  Also known as ecological tourism is responsible travel to fragile, pristine, and usually protected areas that strives to be low impact and usually small scale. It educates travellers; directly benefits the economic development and political empowerment of local communities; and fosters respect for different cultures and for human rights.	Ecotourism is a form of tourism that involves visiting natural areas.
Adjectival tourism	Adjectival tourism refers to the specialty forms of tourism that has emerged over the years, each with its own adjective. Many of these have come into common use by the tourism industry and academics examples include: medical tourism, cultural tourism, wildlife tourism and so on.	Turkey attracts medical tourists from countries in Europe and the Middle East.
Culture shock	The feeling of shock and confusion someone has when they go to a new and very different place that is very different to the way they are accustomed to.	The first few days in China was a bit of a culture shock.
Youth hostel	A cheap, simple hotel, especially for young people who are travelling. The traditional hostel format involves dormitory style accommodation.	Gap-year students and rail-trippers tend to stay at hostels as it is cheaper and a perfect place to meet other travellers.

MASS TOURISM is definitely increasing and 2012 saw a record break with 1 billion tourists travelling globally for the first time in history, most of these tourists went to European countries. MASS TOURISM is definitely getting cheaper every year and more destinations are opening.  Other forms of tourism are also increasing and what is known as ADJECTIVAL TOURISM which means each form of tourism has its own adjective such as winter tourism, pro-poor tourism, educational tourism (e.g. Erasmus), sports tourism, dark tourism, doom tourism and many more. 

For few people travelling to places outside their comfort zone could suffer from CULTURE SHOCK, but they could recover after a few days or weeks.

IELTS VOCABULARY - TOPIC BASED - EDUCATION

For the first of many topics to be posted is EDUCATION

VOCABULARY	DEFINTION	EXAMPLE
Tuition	Teaching, especially when given to a small group or one person, such as in a college or university	Free language tuition in French, German or Spanish is offered to students enrolled on the course.
Tuition fees	Tuition fees - the money paid to an educational institution for teaching.	Few can afford the tuition fee of $30,000 a year at that school.
Qualification	You receive this when you pass an exam or a course.	What qualifications do you need to be a pilot?
Degree	a qualification given for completing a university course	I have a degree in economics from the University of Cambridge.
Enrol	to become an official member of a course, college or university	I've enrolled on an IELTS preparation course at Istanbul IELTS.

In some countries the education system is great where families and students do not need to worry about the quality of education and the financing of their education, but in other countries this is a different story.  I think there are a lot of schools where the tuition fees are very high and the education is not that great.  So families have to pay for private tuition for their child who may need further support with their learning. After students finish high school they may not able to enrol at one of the best universities and this may affect what type of qualification they receive when they graduate.  A good degree from a good university does not always guarantee a good career but I believe it helps.

...IELTS GENERAL WRITING TASK 2 continued

After a little bit of a break...

 

The first thing to do is to understand what the topic is before you start writing. You must answer all parts of the question. What do we mean by “all parts of the question”?  Some writing tasks ask you to maybe give opinions or discuss views or advantages and disadvantages. You need to look at the question/task carefully and answer all parts of the question.

 

You need to be able to make your position clear, provide main ideas, followed by supporting ideas as well as examples. Do NOT forget to write an introduction and a conclusion.

 

What if I don’t know how to start the writing?

 

As I mentioned above you must understand the question first, analyse the question. You should spend no more than TWO minutes on this.

 

Brainstorm as many ideas as you can, it does not matter at this stage if the ideas are not related/silly etc. at this stage all ideas are good ideas. You should spend about 2-3 minutes. Brainstorming helps to bring all your ideas together, so during the writing task you will not be erasing all the time.

 

Plan your answer. Which idea are you going to use in which paragraph, how can you support your ideas. The examiner will be looking at how your essay is planned.  (The examiner will not be looking at your plan, but will be able to see from your writing how you planned your essay). Spend around TWO minutes planning your essay.

 

Now, begin writing your essay. Make sure you follow your plan as you write as this will save you time and energy as you have all your ideas written down. As you are writing, make sure you use reference words (e.g. these, those, this, there etc.).  Approximately 28 minutes to write your essay.

 

After you have written each paragraph, count the number of words you have written in each paragraph and make a note for yourself.  As you need to write 250 words, if your word count is less.  then you will lose points and you may only get a maximum band score of 5 in Task Achievement.

 

Once you have finished writing make sure you check your writing. Check for spelling mistakes, word formation, grammar etc. Trust me, when you check your writing you will find mistakes in your writing and this could possibly gain at least a half band score. Save around 5 minutes to check your writing.

 

Good luck with your essay writing!

 

 

IELTS General WRITING TASK 2

GENERAL WRITING TASK 2

Task 2 is a topic on which you have to write a discursive (discussion) essay. The topic may be in the form of a statement or a question. Sometimes different or opposing views are expressed; sometimes there is one view to discuss.

In Writing Task 2 you will receive a topic and you will have to write an essay of 250 words.
This task has more weight than the Writing task 1. It also takes longer – 40 minutes.

Any essay you write on any topic must have structure – you will earn more points. Structure means having at least 4-5 paragraphs. The first paragraph is introductory, the next two or three are the actual essay body, and the final paragraph is the conclusion.

I'll post more at a later date...