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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 Listening and Reading tips from Band 8.5 achiever

I am glad to hear that I am the winner of November 2008 exam result competition and would like to thank IELTS-Blog team once again for helping me getting this band score. Before this exam I sat for IELTS exam twice but could not succeed. Both times I missed out in writing module by just 0.5 band whereas I was getting band 7 in all other modules.

Listening tips

This time I followed IELTS tips from IELTS-Blog website. My friends, as you are all know, in listening the last section is the toughest of all other sections and we usually loose marks in that. I would suggest you all to concentrate more on that section rather than focusing much on others. In last section we usually have to answer 10 questions without a pause. So my advice is to practice last section a lot in order to achieve a higher band score in listening.

Reading tips

As far the reading is concerned, when reading paragraphs if you do not know the meaning of any word, after finishing the passage you must look it up in the dictionary so that you know the meaning of that word for the next time you see it. Once you have finished reading and you have checked your answers, you must go through the wrong answers to find out the reason for their wrongness.

Read Writing and Speaking tips from Rahul here.

IELTS essay, topic – Getting the news from the radio, TV or the Internet

You can get up-to-date news from the radio, TV and the Internet. Which kind of media do you think is the best to get the news?

Nowadays, there are several channels to get news, such as the radio, TV, newspapers and the Internet. I think the Internet is the best among these. .

Since its invention, the Internet has been booming as a prospective industry. Not only because it is a combination of text, audio and video, but also due to its . It has threatened the domination of spreading news of the traditional media, and, I would say, is about to take control.

We can find everything we want on the Internet – the latest news, books, songs, movies, cartoons… . With the radio, we can merely hear. Compared to a newspaper, the radio and TV can provide the latest information. For instance the breaking news of the Americans’ attacking Iraq was immediately online, as well as that the Twin Towers of New York were destroyed on September 11, 2001. However, we just cannot .

The Internet is a way of getting information, as long as your mobile phone is connected or you possess a laptop. When I am a vehicle, I usually have my cellphone connected to the Internet, then browse through what in the past few hours, or log in MSN to begin a conversation with my friends. Reading a newspaper is also a good way to kill time, but for me, a youngster, it is not so modern as “surfing online while commuting”.

The traditional media will never disappear, though the Internet has taken a big advantage the competition. And definitely, there is still a long way for the Internet to go. , the Internet benefits me the most, and I highly appreciate it.

This essay needs some work. It covers the task and its structure is fine. However the structure of the sentences needs attention (see suggestions in comments underlined in blue). Some words such as “whatever” should be avoided. You use prepositions in an inaccurate way and there are grammatical and spelling errors in your essay as well. Overall, this looks like a Band 6.5 essay.

Click here to see more IELTS essays of band 6

This sentence has no value, instead you could say that other kinds of media have their advantages too, however, there are objective reasons why the Internet is the best
convenience
don’t use this word in essay, use “and more” instead
available
watch TV all day long
convenient
in
happened
over
Because of all of the advantages