Skip to content

Simone Braverman

Simone Braverman is the founder of IELTS-Blog.com and the author of several renowned IELTS preparation books, including Ace the IELTS, Target Band 7, the High Scorer's Choice practice test series, and IELTS Success Formula. Since 2005, Simone has been committed to making IELTS preparation accessible and effective through her books and online resources. Her work has helped 100,000's of students worldwide achieve their target scores and live their dream lives. When Simone isn't working on her next IELTS book, video lesson, or coaching, she enjoys playing the guitar or rollerblading.

IELTS Results competition winners for August 2009

August was a great month for many IELTS candidates, a lot of people got great scores in their exams and we’ve got 4 winners. Strangely, all of them took Academic module and we didn’t have any of General Training folks submitting their results. I hope we will have more General Training competitors next time, meanwhile let me announce the Academic module winners:

Bernard Yung from Hong Kong, Band 8.5

Lalitha Jawahar from India, Band 8.5

Lena Bucatariu from Romania, Band 8.5

Mythri Hanasoge from India, Band 8.5

We all applaud you, our winners, and wish you all the best with your future plans. Each of you will receive a special certificate to remember your achievement, and we are waiting for you to share your best tips and secrets of success.

Please send me an email and answer this question: “What does it take to score 8.5 in IELTS?”. Your answers will be published to give everyone a chance to learn from the high achievers.

One last thing for today – I know that this week many people have their exams, and want to wish you all good luck and great scores.

IELTS in Iran, Egypt and UK – August 2009 (Academic Module)

You probably guessed by now that IELTS exams in Iran, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Italy and the UK were identical. Well, almost identical – apart from the Speaking module, in which students had different questions. Thanks to 3 kind IELTS candidates (A, M and G) we know this much about the recent exam:

Listening test

Section 1: A phone conversation where a customer provides personal details such as name, telephone number, date of birth, etc.

Section 2: A map was given and the questions were about identifying places on it.

Section 3: A university lecture about a project in painting.

Section 4: A lecture about architecture.

Reading test

Passage 1: About Chimpanzee (kind of monkey), their similarities and differences. The text was very long.

Passage 2: About tourist and effect on nature, eco-tourism.

Passage 3: About the kind of technology that is more effective: small or large, cheap or expensive.

Writing test

Writing task 1 (report)
We had two pie charts that compared the reasons why students are choosing a particular UK university in 1987 and 2007.

Writing Task 2 (essay)
Some people think that governments should care about their citizens’ diet and health. Others think that people themselves should take responsibility for their own diet and health. Discuss. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Speaking test

Interview
– What is your name?
– Where are you from?
– Tell me about your home.
– Which room in your apartment is the best?
– What do you do for improving your home?

Cue Card
Talk about your best friend and how do you spend your time together, you should say
– Who the friend is
– What do you do together.

Discussion
– What do you think about strong relationship within families?
– Discuss Tehran families.