IELTS strategies 1: what is the key word? Yes / no/ NOT GIVEN OR   TRUE / FALSE / DOES NOT SAY   QUESTIONS 

Aims to help students to identify the key word in sentences.

I believe many students find the true/false/doesn’t say and yes/no/not given questions in the IELTS academic reading module particularly difficult, especially the difference between 'no' and 'not given'. Many teachers attending the recent IELTS clinics shared this feeling. One approach to help students focus on the task is to get the students to underline ONE keyword from each statement. It’s often advised to underline keywords in questions but it may not be clear to students what kind of keywords to look out for. I’ve illustrated this below with a list of statements from 't/f/dns' and 'y/n/ng' questions in Sam McCarter’s IELTS Testbuilder.

Select ONE keyword from each of the following:

1. Networking is not a modern idea.2. People fall into two basic categories.3. All teachers are cynics.4. The first piece of Hesse’s art has little effect on visitors to the gallery.5. The New Forest has already been made into a National Park.

Suggested answers:

1. not2. two3. all4. little or perhaps first5. already

The suggested answers I’ve given may not seem that obvious to the students who would possibly consider keywords such as 'modern' or 'New Forest' as more significant. However, the keywords shown have a greater significance in terms of the meaning of the whole statement and illustrate a number of traps in the test. For instance:

1. 'not' makes the statement negative as opposed to possibly being positive in the text2. 'two' determines a specific number of categories which may differ in the text.

3. 'all' determines that every teacher is a cynic and not a proportion of.4. 'little' has a negative connotation as opposed to 'a little' another one to watch out

for is 'few' and 'a few'5. 'already' shows that the New Forest was made into a National Park in the past and

is not a future proposal i.e. an indication of past, present or future time.These examples hence illustrate the importance of looking out for: negativity, a specific number, the whole or a proportion of, positive and negative connotation and reference to time. Other ones to watch out for include:

Modals e.g. words like must, should, have to (varying degrees of obligation or certainty)

Adverbs of frequency e.g. sometimes, always Words such as most, some, all

This can be used as a regular activity in class when attempting this question type. The keyword the student selects may not turn out to be the correct one but at least the student is focusing on the task. A useful addition to this activity is to compare what the student perceived to be the keyword before reading the text and what the keyword turned out to be after having read the text.

IELTS listening tips FROM www.dcie lts.com FOUND THEM USEFUL FOR YOU ALL !

You sometimes see it said that all you have do with the listening paper in IELTS is to practice: that there aren’t any particular skills to learn. I disagree – profoundly. There are not just definite skills to learn, there are also I would suggest very definite ways in which to practice. Here are a few of my best IELTS listening tips.

1. Read before you listen – predict the answerOne difficulty in the exam is that you are not just listening, but reading the question and writing the answer all at the same time. One simple tip is to read the questions before you listen so that you know what you are listening for. It is a difficult skill to master, but it can sometimes help to try and predict the type of answer you are looking for: is it a name for instance or a number?

2. Read as you listen – focus on the whole question

A huge proportion of mistakes are made not because you haven’t listened well, but because you you do not focus on the question. As you are listening focus on the precise wording of the question. 3. Look at 2 questions at onceOne difficulty is that the answers to 2 questions often come quickly one after the other. Can you get both answers? Maybe, maybe not: but the only way you can is if you are ready for the next question.I’d add that it’s no problem getting one question wrong, the real problem is if you lose track of where you are in the listening and you are still listening for question 13 when the cassette has moved onto question 15.

4. Don’t leave the writing to the endSometimes candidates leave the writing part to the end, thinking that they will remember what they heard. In my experience, this almost never works: there’s a lot of information, you’re under stress and, most importantly, after each listening you should be moving onto the next set of questions to read them.

5. Practice your shorthandYou do not have to write everything that you down: you have 10 minutes at the end to copy your answers onto the answer sheet. So what you need to do is to learn how to write down enough for you to recognise as you are listening so that you can write it out in full later. The one exception to this is in part 1 with numbers and names where you have to write everything out in full as you are listening – that is the challenge.

6. Numbers and names – check your spellingIn part 1, you are almost invariably required to spell names and/or write down numbers. This looks easy, but in my experience can often go wrong and the problem is that if you get any spelling wrong, you lose the mark Of course you know the alphabet, but some letters can cause problems even for advanced learners, in particular:J & GYA & E & IMy tip is to make an association that you can remember: these are mine, but I suggest you make your own:J is for Jesus, but G is for GodHow do you spell “why”? W-H-YA is for apple

E is for elephantI is for ‘I”

7. Don’t write the answer too quicklySometimes you hear what you think is the answer, but the speaker goes on to correct themselves or give slightly different information:“So I’ll see you on Wednesday afternoon”“Sorry, I’m busy then. How about Thursday evening?”“Fine, Thursday at 7 0′clock”

8. Don’t leave any blank answersThere are 2 reasons for this. Firstly, your guess may well be correct, particularly if it is a multiple choice style question. Secondly, there is a danger if you leave a blank that you write the answers in the wrong boxes on the answer sheet and that can be a disaster.

9. Listen for repeated informationThis doesn’t always work, but sometimes the words that are the answer are repeated: if you need to make a guess choose the words you hear repeated, they could well the be answer.

10. Look for clues in the questionA frequent question type is completing a table; in this type of question you will often find clues to the answer by looking at the other information in the table. In particular, look at the headings of the rows and columns: if, for example, the heading says “equipment” and some of the completed boxes say “paperclips” and “cardboard” you have a good clue as to what you should be listening for.

For more advice try my Youtube Channel

I have now several listening videos on my Youtube Channel DC IELTS. There you will find video advice on how to improve  your listening skills for IELTS. The IELTS listening tips  there are the same as here but with:

more details examples

MORE TIPS ON  TRUE/ FALSE / DOES NOT SAY OR   YES/ NO / NOT GIVEN 

True False Not given – reading tutorial and practice

Perhaps the question type that gives most pain to most IELTS candidates is the True/False/Not given question type. Here are some pointers to help you improve your IELTS band score with a link to some specific practice on this type of question.

The question types

In fact there are two question types here:

1. True/False/Not given: fact based2. Yes/No/Not given: opinion based

In each case you need to decide if the information in the text agrees with the information in the question. You should note that in the “Yes/No/Not given” questions, you are normally asked to look for the writer’s opinions rather than facts.

Note the key skill

The key skill here is to understand that you are interpreting the text and the question. This means that you need to read very closelyand pay attention to what the writer means. Don’t think of it as a skimming question, rather a question where you need to read the text and the question closely and decide what the writer means.How to get the answers right

True/YesThere is information in the text that agrees exactly with the statement in the question. Note that you will almost certainly need to look for synonyms here and match meaning and not words.

False/NoThere is information in the text that is directly opposite to or contradicts the statement in the question. Again note that you will also need to think about meaning here. You should pay careful attention to “little” words that qualify or change meaning such as: some , all, often, occasionallyNot GivenThis is the one that normally causes the most problems. Something is not given if there is no information about it in the text. Do not spend ages looking for Not Given answers because you will waste time.

Guessing intelligently

This is probably the hardest question type. Don’t despair though you have a good chance of guessing correctly. In fact the questions are hard because you have a one in three chance of guessing! Here is my suggestion

1. if you find information in the text about the statement in the question: guess True or False  but remember to read the whole question and not just match words in it

2. if you find no information in the text about the statement guess Not Given - don’t waste time. Typically, answer are Not Given when they match just one or two words in the question

3. if you have no idea, then guess Not Given. You have a one in three chance of being right and you may have no idea because it isn’t there!Some examples of how the questions work

Macallan is one of the four top selling brands of malt whisky in the world. It is made in barrels made of Spanish oak that have previously been used for sherry because this adds sweetness to its flavour.TrueMacallan is globally successful.

This is true because top selling brands of malt whisky in the world matches globally successful.False Macallan is made in metal containers.

This is false because the text says it us made in barrels of Spanish oak. Because oak is a wood this contradicts the words int he question metal containers. Note that you need to think about meaningNot GivenMacallan is made in Spain.

There is no information about where it is made. Be careful of the trap of seeing the words Spanish and made  in the text. Usually with Not Given answers you will find some words in the text that match words int he question without matching the meaning of thewhole question.A difficulty – Not Given

The “Not Given” variation is probably what makes this type of question so difficult. How can you deal with this problem? You need to understand that:

“Not given” does not mean no words in the question are used in the text. Typically, you will find some of words from the question in the text – they simply don’t answer the whole question

You cannot add information that is probably true: you can only use the information given in the textSome practical tips

1. Read the whole question. Do NOT focus on key words. Think about the meaning of the question.

2. Be especially careful with words such as “often” and “some”. They can change the meaning of the question dramatically.

3. Be careful with questions beginning “The writer says”: here you need to think about the writer’s opinions and not about facts.

4. The questions will follow the order of the text: if you can’t find answer 12, you know it must be somewhere between 11 and 13.

5. Do not spend too long on any one question. If the answer is “Not Given”, there may be nothing for you to find.

6. One possibility is to mark all the “True” answers and all the “False” answers and then guess “Not Given” for the others.A suggested procedure

Here is my suggested procedure:

1. Read the instructions carefully and note whether you are being asked to look for facts or opinions.

2. Look at all the questions and see what topics they ask about. You may note key words here, but only to identify the correct part of the text to read.

3. Skim the text to identify which paragraphs you need to read more closely. Note that the questions will follow the order of the text and so the answer to question 10 will follow the answer to question 11

4. Mark on the question paper which paragraphs relate to which question: eg, write 11 against paragraph E

5. Refocus on the question and read the whole question: be careful with tricky words like “usually”

6. Underline the words in the text that give you the answer. This helps you concentrate and also allows you to change your mind, if you find a better answer later.A variation is to mark the “True” answers first as they tend to be the easiest and then go back to the “False” and “Not given” later.