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Step-by-Step IELTS Lessons & Materials

How to Use These IELTS Lessons to Improve Your Band Score

This page isn’t just a collection of IELTS lessons — it’s a step‑by‑step system you can use to improve your band score in a focused, personalised way.

Start by identifying your weak areas by taking our IELTS practice tests, then work through the lessons that target those specific skills. Each lesson builds on the IELTS band criteria, so you’re always improving the areas that examiners actually score.

You can use the lessons like a personal improvement plan:

  1. Identify what’s holding your score back
  2. Study the lessons for that skill or task
  3. Apply what you learn in practice
  4. Move on to the next priority area

Whether you’re working on Writing, Speaking, Reading, or Listening, these lessons help you study smarter — focusing your time on what will raise your score, not just practising blindly.


Writing Task 1 (Academic)

Learning about Types of Graphs and Diagrams

More Tips and Strategies

  • Language of Change
    This lesson explains some useful sentence structures using some common language of change and you can practice the words with a gap fill.  
  • Language to Compare and Contrast
    Compare and contrast language is needed for most graphs and diagrams so it is important to learn and practice it. 

  • A Common Mistake
    This lesson takes you through a mistake that is common when describing graphs in Task 1. 

  • Using Prepositions
    Learn how to use the right prepositions when you are using the language of change in a graph over time.

  • Organizing a Line Graph (Part 1)
    Find out about how there is more than one was to organize a task 1 graph, and learn how to write about a graph divided into 'age groups'.

  • Organising a Line Graph (Part 2)
    If you want to achieve a high band score for your graph you must ensure it is well-organised. This lesson tells you more about one possible way of doing this.

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Writing Task 2 (Academic & GT)

  • Identifying the Topic
    Learn how to identify the topic of an essay question in order to help you answer it correctly. 
  • Paragraph Writing
    Writing clear and well-organized paragraphs is essential for your essay, so here you will learn about the basic elements that make up a good paragraph. 

  • IELTS Essay Conclusion
    Learn how to write a quick conclusion for an IELTS essay.
  • Transitions
    Your writing must be coherent, and this lesson shows you how transitions can help you to do this.
  • Pronouns
    Your writing must be coherent, and this IELTS practice lesson shows you how pronouns can help you to do this

  • Substitution for Coherency Band 7 
    Learn how to use synonyms in IELTS to boost your coherence and writing quality. 
  • How to get an IELTS Writing band 7
    There is no quick way to achieve this, but this lesson provides some general guidance on what is required to get an IELTS band 7 in the writing module. 
  • Problem Solution Essays
    Learn how to write a problem solution essay for the IELTS test - a quick method that will produce a well-organized answer.
  • IELTS Opinion Essays
    Get an overview of the various types of essay that ask for your opinion in the test.

  • Advantage Disadvantage Essay
    This lesson shows you how to write an IELTS advantage disadvantage essay that requires you to give an opinion.

  • A Complex Essay Question
    This lesson shows you how to answer a more complex IELTS essay question that does not have a straightforward 'task' given to guide you.

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Writing Task 1 (GT)

  • Structuring/Organising the IELTS Letter
    Learn the general structure of an IELTS letter, from beginning to end.

  • Opening and Closing a Letter
    Learn how to open and close a letter for the General Training Task 1.

  • IELTS Complaint Letter
    Complaint letters are very common. Get advice, strategies and key phrases to learn so that you can write an effective letter of complaint. There is also a model answer.

  • IELTS Letter Tenses
    It's important that you use the right tenses in your letter if you want a high score. Learn more about how to look out for what tenses to use in this lesson. 

  • IELTS Band 9 Letter
    Find out what you need to do to get a band 9 in your letter.

  • Phrasal Verbs in IELTS Letters
    Learn how using phrasal verbs can improve informal letters.

  • Formal vs Informal Language
    The tone of your letter is critical to get band 7 or higher. Find out the differences between formal and informal language.

  • Using Inverted Conditionals 
    You want to do what you can to show you have a wide range of grammatical structuring - learn how to do this through using inverted conditionals. 

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Academic Reading

Question Types

More strategies and practice

Guessing meaning from context
Improve your reading skills and speed by learning how to guess the meaning of new vocabulary. There is also a practice quiz.

Reading Strategies
The aim of this lesson is to develop your IELTS reading strategies in order to find the answers to questions such as 'short answer' as quickly as possible.

Referencing in IELTS Reading
If you don't understand what referencing, you may well not be able to find some answers. This lesson explains what referencing in IELTS reading is and has practice exercises.  

Skimming and Scanning Tips
This lessons explains how skimming and scanning are essential skills to speed up your reading and increase your score. 

Paraphrasing Activity
This paraphrasing activity could boost your score by helping you to find answers quickly in the text.

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IELTS Speaking

Part One

Improving your Responses
This lesson uses a quiz to teach you how to best answer questions in part 1 of the IELTS speaking test.

Tips and a Technique for the Best Answers in Part 1
Your answers should be concise but interesting. This lesson provides tips and a technique for doing this, plus some IELTS speaking practice.

Types of Speaking Questions for IELTS
In this IELTS practice lesson some of the common types of questions that appear in part 1 of the test are explained. The aim is to improve the accuracy of your answers to questions.

Part Two

Extending Your Answer
In this lesson, learn some tips on how to extend your speaking for part 2 of the speaking test.

Mind Map: Structuring your talk
This lesson explain how you can use a mind map to help you brainstorm and organise you talk for part 2 of the test. There is also a sample answer.

Using "Would" to discuss hypothetical situation
Find out how to use "would" when speaking about an unreal future situation in part 2 of the IELTS test.

Part Three

Describing Changes
You often have to discuss changes in part 3 of the speaking test. This IELTS practice lesson provides you with grammar tips to answer these questions.

 Talking about the Future
You often have to discuss the future in part 3 of the speaking test. This lessons provides you with grammar tips to answer these questions.

Giving & Justifying Opinions
Learn some useful phrases for giving opinions in part 3 and justifying those opinions.

Useful IELTS Interview Expressions
This lesson provides you with a set of useful expressions that you can use to help you in the all parts of the speaking test, particularly part 3.

Talking about Personal Experiences
Many students make the mistake of talking about themselves in part 3. This is ok, but only for examples. Learn more about it here.

General Tips

Formality & Getting the tone right
This lesson explains what tone you should use in the speaking to help you sound natural.

Common Questions about the Speaking Test
Do you have questions about this part of the test? You'll probably find the answer here. 

Filler for IELTS Speaking
Avoid saying 'Uhm' and 'Eh' in the test - learn some better fillers for when you're not sure what to say.

Key Phrases for IELTS Speaking
This lesson provides you with lots of key phrases to improve Fluency and Coherence, one of the criteria you are graded on in the test.

How to Paraphrase for Band 8
To get a band 8, you have to be able to paraphrase effectively. Learn more and practice.

Discourse Markers for Fluency and Coherence
Learn how to use these to make your speech more organised, coherent, and engaging for the examiner.

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IELTS Listening

Lesson 1: IELTS Listening Multiple Choice Tips
In this lesson, learn some tips on how to improve your listening skills for multiple choice type questions.

Lesson 2: IELTS Listening Distractors
In this lesson we learn more about a common way that you are tricked into writing the wrong answer. Learn about this so you can avoid the mistake.

Lesson 3: IELTS Listening Map Labelling
Here you can learn more about how to label a map, a task that sometimes comes up in Section Two of the test. Learn about the language of location and other top tips to score well.

Lesson 4: IELTS Signposting Language for Section 4
Section 4 is the most difficult part of the listening test. Learn useful signposting language to improve your score for this section.

Lesson 5: IELTS Pre-Listening Activities - Predicting the Answer
Predicting what you are going to hear is a really important skill that can help improve your listening and increase your score.

Lesson 6: IELTS Listening Sentence Completion Strategies
In this IELTS practice lesson you will learn some strategies to deal with sentence completion questions.

Lesson 7: Grammar in IELTS Listening
This lessons looks at key tips to ensure you don't make grammar errors and can use grammar to help you get the right answer.

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IELTS Grammar

Goto the IELTS Grammar page for updates on the grammar lessons.



Don't forget to also check out our IELTS Training Videos

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