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.

Free online course to improve your score – what you will learn

Some of you may already know that we have been working around the clock to get the new online course ready. I am really happy with the progress we’ve made and I think you guys will be pleased with the outcome.

The course is on how to get a higher IELTS score by building a positive image in the examiner’s mind. There will be 6 lessons, and each lesson will concentrate on one IELTS task.

Here is what you will learn:

Lesson #1: How to create a positive, psychological impression on your IELTS assessors.

Lesson #2: How to write a Task 1 report that will impress your assessors (Academic Module).

Lesson #3: How to write a Task 1 letter that will impress your assessors (General Training Module)

Lesson #4: How to write a Task 2 essay that will influence your assessors positively (Academic and General).

Lesson #5: How to improve your Speaking test score by connecting with your assessor.

Lesson #6: How to optimize your performance in the Listening and Reading tests.

We start tomorrow. I will post a link to the course on the blog. See you there!

IELTS exam in India – February 2009 (Academic Module)

This update was brought to me by F. from India, who took Academic IELTS exam some days ago. Thank you for sharing!

Writing test

Writing task 1 (report)
There were two bar charts in Task 1 and I think the question was some thing like this:
“The charts show the number of young teenagers who smoke regularly in a European country.”
One charts contained the percentages of 13,14 and 15 years old females smokers in years 1995,2000 and 2005 while the other charts contained same data for males.

Writing task 2 (essay)
The essay topic was about the financial help that rich countries offer for solving the problem of poverty in less developed countries. First sentence said that this type of help is often considered by rich countries and second sentence was suggesting that it is not a good solution for this problem and rich counties should find other ways to help the poor nations instead of financial aids. To what extent do you agree with this idea?

Speaking test

Interview
– What is your full name?
– Where are you from?
– Tell me about the apartment that you live in.
– Do you have plan to stay or you want to leave?
– What you can see from the window of your apartment?
– What kind of food do you like? ( I said Italian )
– Can you easily find the ingredients for making Italian food in market?
– Where do you eat your favorite food?
– Were you helping your parents in cooking when you were a child?
– What did you cook?
– What kind of music do you listen to?
– Name one of you favorite bands.

Cue Card
Describe a book that you have recently read. You should say:
– What it was about
– What did you like about it
– What did you dislike about it

Discussion
The examiner asked me several question about these subjects:
– Whether I recommend that book to anyone or not.
– Children and books.
– Differences in type of reading between children and adult.
– Impact of modern life on reading.
– Book or movies. Which one in better and why.
– People who can’t read and write and their problems in society.