A speaking exam: defending a view while the examiner tests it
An examiner probes a candidate's position on banning cars from city centres; the candidate concedes, corrects and holds the line.
Exam Preparation
Exam preparation for IELTS, TOEFL and Cambridge, aimed at what examiners actually reward rather than at test tricks. The material is currently focused on writing: restating a task in your own words so that you answer what was really asked, and choosing connectors that make an argument easy to follow. Both skills transfer across all three exams. It sits at B1 and B2 - if that feels early, strengthen Grammar first and come back.
What each paper of the A2 Key exam asks you to do
The three papers of the A2 Key exam, what each one asks you to do and how the marks are shared.
To carry more weight than a competing consideration
The formal verb of written argument for saying one consideration matters more than another.
Rewrite the action as a noun
Restate the action in each sentence as a noun, the move that lifts an essay's register.
Turning actions into nouns to lift the register
Turning verbs into nouns to lift the register of an essay, with the endings that build each noun.
Paraphrasing the question in IELTS Writing Task 2: what examiners reward
IELTS Writing Task 2 paraphrasing, judged against the band descriptors: which techniques earn marks, which words to leave alone, and where a rewrite costs you.
Rewriting the question in your own words
How to reword an essay prompt so the examiner sees your language, not the question's.
Connectors that hold an essay together
The connectors that make an essay's logic visible, grouped by the relationship each one signals.
Connecting your ideas: choose the linker
Work out the logical relationship between two ideas and choose the connector that signals it.