Yes, reading is a great way of improving your writing skills. To hear more about this or get feedback on your work, please feel free to contact us here: chris@ieltsadvantage.com

No problem! If you’d like our team of IELTS teachers to help you prepare for your IELTS exam, please contact our team here: chris@ieltsadvantage.com. Thanks!

You’re very welcome!

If you’d like our team of IELTS teachers to guide you through your exam preparation and give you feedback on your work, you should ask us about joining our VIP Course. Simply send us an email here: chris@ieltsadvantage.com

Thank you for the kind words.

Merry Christmas and Happy 2016 to you and your family!

I had to score a minimum of 7 in all bands and since July 2016, I kept missing the elusive 7 for the Writing component (my previous scores were 6 and 6.5). I signed up for the third time for the Dec 10, 2016 sitting and was browsing for a tutorial which gave very precise instructions on the essay format for Task 1 & 2. I had been referring to 3 other tutorials but clearly from the dismal writing scores, I still couldn’t grasp the winning technique. Then just 5 days before Dec 10th, I started looking for other tutorials and I stumbled onto IELTS Advantage!

Chris you are so heaven sent! Your teaching techniques are totally enlightening! You actually walk the reader through the thought process in print. As you explain each step, you frequently clarify further by stating, “By this I mean….” and that helped so much. I could literally hear your voice!

I briefly saw a couple of your lessons on You Tube but by then, I really didn’t have time to watch them. I had to brush up in a hurry the grammar rules and so many other rules like the placement of articles and memorize high band score linkers for sentences and the format for Writing Tasks 1 & 2.

The points which I believe helped me enormously were your lessons on choosing key features in Writing Task 1 & Task 2. The other was when you said we could make up statistics when giving examples; the numbers don’t have to be factual but they have to make sense. NO other teacher (the IELTS tutorials that I was using) ever mentioned this point and I used to wonder how in the dear Lord’s name did those high scorers remember so many uncommon facts.

Of course, your walking the reader through with very precise directions on how to approach Task 1 & 2 Writing, how you dissected the essays into numbered paragraphs and sentences were the best. Finally, I had a eureka moment! The 150 words and 250 words requirements became 11-12 sentences arranged in a precise manner. Seriously, I still hear your phrase in my mind, ” That’s it! 11 sentences that can be used again and again for any problem solution IELTS essay.”

So for my Dec 10th sitting, I scored: Listening 8, Reading 8, Writing 7.5, Speaking 7 (I was nervous that day. I scored 7.5 and 8.5 previously). ​​Overall: 7.5.

To all of you who are reading this – yes, yes, yes there’s absolutely no miracle short cut to high scores in IELTS. YOU’VE GOT TO STUDY as in read up, do tons of cross referencing on words/hyphenated words/spelling/phrases/grammar (thank goodness for internet and Google!), WRITE NOTES on key points (and keep reading them) and PRACTICE TIMED writing tests as well as listening (yes, even the Listening component is not so easy-peasy if it’s a high score you’re after) and reading tests. Thank your lucky stars you even stumbled on to this IELTS Advantage site!

Note: Though I only stumbled on to this site 5 days before the exam date, I had been in studying mode on-off 6 months earlier. By the time I came across IELTS Advantage, I was already familiar with the exam format and had been reading 3 other IELTS tutorials. IELTS Advatage sort of filled in the blanks which I had been struggling with. Oh well, better late than another IELTS exam!

Chris, thank you so very much for your exceptionally no holds barred tips!

Cheers and all the best to you all who will be sitting for your exam soon!!