Promptitude

The first and most important thing you need to do to succeed in speaking and writing is promptitude. If your promptness is low, you will not be able to perform well in these sections. Writing and speaking are sections where you need good promptitude to succeed and have a professional result. Of course, this does not mean you pay attention to speed and forget accuracy. Instead, these two together give a good result, and if you don’t have one of them, your work is useless. The best thing to do to increase promptitude is just practice. If you need two hours for writing, try gradually increasing this time to 40 minutes by practicing. 

General knowledge 

Many language learners don’t pay much attention to having general knowledge. They think they can easily outrun and succeed only with high language knowledge and strategy. No, this is wrong. Sometimes language learners have the low general knowledge to the extent that if they are asked writing and speaking questions in their native language, they cannot answer. It is important to have general information in listening and reading skills. Strong general knowledge is necessary for writing and speaking skills, and your work will be ineffective if you do not have enough information about the question. 

For example, you may be asked about astronauts. In addition to having high language skills in this section, you must have information about astronautics to give a complete and correct answer.

Energy management

If you cannot manage your energy correctly, you will not be able to perform well in the exam session. When preparing for the exam, you should sleep well, eat good food, exercise, and get enough oxygen to attend the exam session in the best mood. If you have studied enough and prepared yourself for the exam but do not have a recovery period, you will not be able to perform well in the exam session. Therefore, energy management is one of the essential features that you must observe to succeed in speaking and writing. 

Body language

If you have noticed, our thoughts and feelings shape our bodies. For example, if you have negative thoughts, your face will suddenly look sad, and your shoulders will bend down. In this situation, you will tell the examiner that you do not have confidence and cannot give good answers to the questions. So practice sitting straight, having positive thoughts, and showing up to the meeting with high energy and confidence to leave a positive impression on the examiner.

Conclusion

As you read, in addition to language information, other factors make candidates successful or not. You may participate in many language courses and have good language knowledge, but you may not get good results due to paying attention to the margins and not following the above. Therefore, language knowledge and knowing strategies are essential but do not neglect these 4 important secrets.

The post 4 important secrets for success in speaking and writing appeared first on Mock Exam Lab.

Use of idioms

Using different idioms in writing can increase your score and effectively attract the examiner’s opinion. But you need to know what terms to use. For example, using informal idioms in writing is inappropriate, especially in task 2. Try to use idioms that are suitable for your writing and are formal so that you can attract the examiner’s opinion and show your knowledge.

But you should know that the examiner doesn’t grade the complicated words you use and grades your knowledge. So you don’t need to use hard terms. You can get ideas from them and write your opinion about that term.

Use of proverbs

After you have read about idioms, we will now explain to you about proverbs. In this section, unlike the idioms section, we must tell you not to use proverbs if you don’t have to because you may use a proverb to convey your meaning. But this proverb may not be appropriate, and the examiner will interpret your meaning differently. 

This makes your writing disjointed and semantically inconsistent. So you may not get a good result from this section. So try to avoid using proverbs in writing, especially in task 2. Instead, you can turn that proverb into a sentence and write its meaning clearly.

Using idioms and proverbs in speaking

Above, you read about the use of proverbs and idioms in the writing section. Let’s explore these together in the Speaking section as well. I must tell you that there is nothing wrong with using proverbs, idioms, and quotations in the speaking section. It can even be quite effective. Because by doing this, you show the examiner that you have a high level of language knowledge and can use different sentences and words.

But you should know not to lose the fluency and coherence of your speech in the meantime. Try not to use these proverbs if you feel like you might forget your main conversation. Another point you should observe is that you should not use proverbs and quotations too much and only use them in the appropriate place.

Conclusion

In this article, you read about the use of proverbs and quotations. Now you know where it is better to use them and where you should not use them. By practicing and reading past years’ writings and speakings, you can see where these quotes are best used so that you don’t have to worry about this on the day of the main exam.

The post Use of idioms in IELTS test appeared first on Mock Exam Lab.

We will answer all these questions. So don’t miss this article.

Cross out in writing

It is entirely normal to misspell a word when writing because of high writing speed or stress. Many volunteers get worried and lose their concentration in this situation. We must say that if you misspell a word, keep your cool and don’t worry. You can either delete or cross out the wrong word. But be sure that the wrong word is wholly crossed out and that the examiner doesn’t make a mistake.

Omitting words in writing

Another problem that candidates have is that sometimes they may forget a word while writing their sentence. Sometimes they realize this mistake during the review, and there is practically nothing they can do. In this case, they worry and do not know what to do. In this case, you should not worry and lose your concentration. You can write the word you want by opening a small parenthesis between two words. 

But you must be sure that your text does not get dirty and that the written word is entirely readable. Of course, you should know to avoid these mistakes as much as possible. You can solve this problem by planning before starting writing.

When will you lose a grade?

We said that if you misspell and omit words, you can correct them, but you must do this according to the special rule. Otherwise, you will lose a good score. Finally, you should ensure that your writing is clean, legible, and well-written. If you often cross out words or your entire writing is full of parentheses in which you added missing words, you can be sure your score will decrease. Because this will make your writing illegible, the examiner cannot read your words and sentences and will subtract them from the main text. This will reduce your word count from 250. As a result, you will lose the total score.

Conclusion

As you read, there is nothing problem with adding a word or crossing out a wrong word. You will not lose any scores if it is clean and done according to the rules. But finally, plan before writing, so you don’t make these mistakes.

The post Is it possible to cross out a word in IELTS writing? appeared first on Mock Exam Lab.

1. Writing an attractive essay

Many candidates try their best to make their writing seem attractive to the examiner. You should know that the writing does not need to be very attractive and look like a university essay or thesis. The examiner considers other important matters that we have explained in detail in other articles.

So you don’t need to focus all your attention on the literary and attractiveness of the writing. Instead, try to write a complete and correct essay to get the grade for this section.

2. Informal writing

One of the Introduction paragraph mistakes that may reason lose a lot of scores and make your writing appear at a low level is the use of informal and slang words. You must write an essay on a scientific topic in this section. For this topic to be effective, your writing should be formal and non-slang. Using official words makes your writing level rise and seem entirely scientific.

3. Not paraphrasing the question

As you know, one of the tasks you must do in the introduction paragraph, whether in task 1 or task 2, is paraphrasing the question. By doing this, the examiner understands what topic you want to discuss, and your writing will take on general order. In the introduction paragraph, you must paraphrase the subject of the question in one or two sentences and then talk about what you want to write next.

4. Not using a thesis statement

The thesis statement is one of the most important things to write after paraphrasing the question. Many candidates don’t do this and may lose scores because writing a thesis statement is very important. In this section, you must write your main idea and show your opinion in one sentence about the subject of the question. This is how you show the examiner your opinion and what you want to write.

Conclusion

Above, we have explained in detail 4 of the mistakes in writing the introduction paragraph of Writing Task 2. These things are very necessary, and you must follow them to have a professional and coherent paragraph. So try to practice these things in different subjects to get the best result.

The post Introduction paragraph mistakes of writing task 2 appeared first on Mock Exam Lab.

1. Summarize

Summarizing helps you greatly in all skills, and you should not neglect it. They are also very important in podcasts. For this, choose the podcast that suits your language level. Try not to make it too long so that you don’t forget the content and don’t get bored.

After you have listened to the podcast once, open a notebook and write the podcast summary you remember. Finally, write down what content from the podcast helped you and what you learned. Write down the necessary keywords that you remember. This will help a lot in improving your understanding. By doing this, you will gradually learn how to listen to a file and not forget it, as well as understand its content. Summarizing podcasts will help you in the listening test.

2. Read the podcast text

Before listening to the podcast, try to find its full text and put it in front of you. Then start the podcast and read the text aloud at the same time as they speak. Sometimes pause the podcast and even brainstorm and talk about the previous sentences. You can even have an imaginary conversation with the podcast speaker and give his answer.

Play the podcast again and repeat until the end. This will strengthen your conversation, and during the speaking test, you will be able to make sentences without stress and pronounce the words correctly. Also, your memory is strengthened in this way. It may seem a little strange at first, but you can be sure it is very useful.

last word

Again, we say that, do not neglect the miracle of podcasts in the language. You can strengthen all your skills by listening to podcasts and doing different things. You can listen to different podcasts and practice while driving, before bed, or resting. Don’t forget that the podcasts you choose are very important and should match your language level.

The post Golden tips of podcasts appeared first on Mock Exam Lab.

Everyone should choose the appropriate method according to their mood and life. But below, we have explained some of the ways that are popular among language learners. Read these ways to improve skills and try, maybe this time you will be interested in reading, and your English skills will improve.

1. Create an English-speaking environment for yourself

Surely you have heard, or maybe you have experienced, that people can learn it better and more easily in an environment where everyone speaks the same language. For those who want to take the IELTS exam and immigrate to English-speaking countries, this is a very difficult task. But there is a way to create an English-speaking environment around you. 

How can this be done? You can always play the sound of different conversations in your room, try to understand their words, and even answer them. Imagine that you are standing next to them and you have no choice but to speak in English. Another way is to do all your work in English when you wake up in the morning. As if you have no choice but to speak English. You can even read daily news in English and analyze them.

2. Create motivation and goals for yourself

Having a goal always gives direction to people’s lives. It makes you motivated to reach them. Try to have both short-term and long-term goals. Write a long-term goal and set small goals to achieve it. Then, after attaining each of the small goals and conquering the summit of success, create motivation for yourself. This motivation can be buying your favorite device. Or you can invite yourself to visit a friend. This is how you try to reach your goals sooner. After a while, you will get used to this, and you will start to read the language regardless of the gift.

Conclusion

As we said, there are infinite ways to learn a language; you can choose whichever one is right for you. We will tell you more methods in the following articles. But most importantly, you must have continuity and repetition. Don’t stop reading and keep trying. This is how you can achieve success.

The post Ways to improve skills in English appeared first on Mock Exam Lab.

Introduction

As we said, in writing task 2, the questions in both general and academic modules are the same. In writing task two, you have to write an essay about the topic given in the question. This essay should be about 250 words long, and you should follow the punctuation marks to get the grade you want. Don’t forget that your time to answer these questions is about 40 minutes. This is a good time to answer the writing task 2 questions. But you have to plan for it and don’t waste your time on marginal issues.

Task 2 is one of the most important parts of the IELTS test because it accounts for two-thirds of the total writing score. So you have to practice a lot for that.

Topics of writing task 2

Above, you briefly met Writing Task 2. Maybe you ask yourself what the questions of writing task 2 are, and how can I answer them? In writing task 2, you need to have high general knowledge because you are given a topic and told to write your opinion about this topic. These are scientific topics, and you should use the information you have to advance this article.

By looking at last year’s writings, you can read and practice different topics. But if we want to introduce some topics to you, we must say that your essay should be about one of the following topics:

Environment, job, technology, family issues, political issues, industry,…

You should have reasonable general knowledge about these topics to write a few lines about any given topic.

How to write a good essay

Now that you are familiar with the topics of the questions, you may ask how we can write a good essay. As we said above, you will be given about 40 minutes. You should not waste these 40 minutes. You should have a plan for every minute of it. 

Thinking about your topic for a few minutes before starting anything and writing down its keywords is better. Then brainstorm about them. Take a note about everything you want to write. Then after a while, start writing and expand on all those keywords and notes. Finally, take two minutes to review all of your writing. This way, you can be sure that you have good writing and will get a great score.

Conclusion

In this article, you got to know writing task 2 briefly, and you know what questions you are facing. Now you know how much time you have to answer and how to write. We have explained each of these in detail in other articles, and you can read them.

The post Introduction of writing task 2 appeared first on Mock Exam Lab.

How to count words?

Before we look at the number of words, let’s talk about counting the words written, especially in the writing section.

As you know, your time in writing is limited, and you should focus more on your writing and legibility. That’s why you don’t have much time to count each word. But there is no other choice. However, there are ways you can guess how many words you have written. One of these methods is to practice in Mock tests or on the main writing sheets. This way, you know after a while that, for example, 250 words are written in a few lines. 

In addition, after a lot of practice, you can see if your words have reached the quorum or not. But try to write more than the specified number of words to feel comfortable.

Checking the number of words

Now let’s check the number of words and give examples of how each word is calculated. 

1. Dates

Dates are calculated differently in the listening and writing sections. For example, the date of 15th April in the writing test is considered two words. But in the listening test, you have to consider it a word.

2. Numbers and hours

If written as 1000, 12:30, or 10, the number and hours in the writing test are calculated as one word. But if you write these numbers in letters like one thousand, it counts as two words.

In the listening test, both types are counted as one word.

3. Prepositions

All prepositions and conjunctions such as or, on are counted as one word. Even if these words are repeated several times in one sentence, you should still consider them independent words.

4. Hyphen words

Words that have hyphens and are written, for example, in English-speaking countries, are counted as one word.

5. Compound words

Composite words must be calculated in two ways. Sometimes compound words are stuck together and give meaning, like a bedroom. In that case, you should consider them a word. But sometimes compound words are separate but mean the same thing together as a Christmas tree. You have to count these as two words.

Conclusion

As you read, word counting follows a specific rule. If words are written separately and independently, they should be considered a word, even if they are compound. But if the words are stuck together, you should consider them a whole word.

The post How to count words in the IELTS test appeared first on Mock Exam Lab.

1. Practice last year’s writing

Practicing is the best way to succeed in this field. The best resources for practice are the IELTS tests of previous courses. You should study and practice at least 10 to 15 IELTS Writing Task 2 topics. Try to come up with different ideas for each one. You will subconsciously get used to having new ideas when you see each topic.

2. Ideation for everyday topics

You deal with different news and topics during the day. In addition, read English newspapers and listen to the news. Then write down the topics you think might be appropriate for Writing Task 2, and do an idea-building exercise for each. This will make your mind always ready to come up with ideas.

3. Using the brainstorming method

The brainstorming method is a great way to write writing Task 2. In this method, read the topic of the writing. Then think about and write down the relevant keywords. Then Ideation for these keywords and develop them. Write down ideas and use them in your essay. In this way, try to write several main ideas so that you don’t lose the time and coherence of your writing. 

4. Mind mapping

The mind mapping method is similar to the brainstorming method but works in more detail. In this method, write the subject of writing and find its keywords. Then write down the words you think are related to the keywords. Relate them to each other and think about them. Make an idea of how these words relate and use them. 

Conclusion

Ideation in writing task 2 is one of the most critical steps. But having a good and coherent idea requires a lot of practice and repetition. Be sure to use these methods in your exercises to become a professional in this work over time. You can finally get your desired score from this section. We hope you find this article helpful.

The post Ideation for writing task 2 appeared first on Mock Exam Lab.