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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 Band Score Calculator

IELTS-Blog proudly presents a new hot feature:

  • IELTS Band Score calculator
  • This nice addition is something I always wanted but never had. It converts the number of correct answers in the Listening or Reading sections of the IELTS test to approximate Band Score. You will find it very helpful when practicing in solving IELTS exam papers; it saves you some time of calculating the exam result yourself.

    But enough said – one picture is worth a million words, check it out right here.

    Another useful calculator will work out your Overall IELTS Band score for you, using the scores in all the individual sections (Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking) – give it a try here.

    Enjoy and tell your friends!

    And now after you had the chance to check your score, here is a way to improve it:

    1. Read texts from this list of sources (the passages are of Academic IELTS difficulty)

    2. Practice using these Academic Reading tasks.

    3. Practice using these General Training Reading texts.

    4. Another bunch of Academic and General Training Reading and Listening tasks here.

    IELTS Essay, topic: Should students travel?

    Some people think that students who don’t take a break in studies between the high school and the university are at disadvantage compared to students who travel and work after high school before further continuing their education. Do you agree or disagree?

    Nowadays, in our competitive world, to succeed, knowledge from school and university is not enough. Therefore, students who study from the school to university get fewer benefits and contribute less too, compared to those who travel or work and get experience and skills . There are two following reasons to support for my opinion. I refer to the group of people who study from school to university as ‘group A’ and the other group – as ‘group B’.

    Firstly, at school and university, what group A gains is almost entirely theory, theory and theory. Of course, theory is very , however, you can’t do everything with just theory. You must have experience. This is what group A . Although in the third or fourth year at university, group A can be apprentices in some companies, to help them approach their future jobs, they aren’t trained well because of the short time spent working. And the real job is still very strange to them. After graduating, without experience, group A students can’t accomplish their work perfectly. On the other hand, it takes them time and money to keep up with other experienced students and they may be scorned. Therefore, group A students can contribute less than group B who have the two most important things: skills and experience.

    Secondly, as group A students are contributing less, they surely get less benefit. Moreover, many companies which employ people in group A have to train them from ground-up. These companies take this cost from group A’s salary to reduce the risk of their employees leaving to other companies after being trained. So, less benefits are unavoidable and certain, group B members are more loyal and effective workers. They also have useful experience and skills. Besides, their education is the same as or even higher than that of group A. As the result, group B gets more benefits absolutely.

    In conclusion, I think a student should travel or work before going to the university. That way, not only will they have basic knowledge but also skills and experience which are useful for them to get a good job and have a brilliant future.

    This essay is too long (350 words instead of 250). To fight this problem, try to write in a more general form and provide fewer details. The use of language and ideas are good and so is the essay structure. Seems worthy of Band 7.

    students
    before continuing their education
    necessary
    practical
    lacks
    inappropriate connective word