Source: Adapted from publicly available guidance on https://ielts-up.com/. This is an original, condensed summary — not a copy of their site or its reading passages.
Most of that site is navigation, format descriptions already covered on this site (see Start Here), and full reading-comprehension passages lifted from news outlets — none of which belongs here. What's below is the part worth keeping: specific answering tactics per question type, a couple of scoring mechanics that are easy to get wrong, and some phrasing you can actually reuse.
Reading: Tactics by Question Type
The core skill under all of these is scan for the answer's location, then read that one sentence closely — not "read the whole passage carefully." Skimming (first line of each paragraph, drop to the end for names/dates/numbers) gets you the map; scanning for underlined key words gets you to the answer.
| Question type | The trap | The tactic |
|---|---|---|
| True / False / Not Given | One qualifier word (some → most, always → often) flips a True into a False | Read the whole sentence containing the answer, not just the keyword. If the statement claims something the passage never addresses at all, it's Not Given — don't assume it's False just because you can't find it |
| Multiple choice | Wrong options are built from real words in the passage, just recombined or reversed | Distractors usually fall into 3 buckets: the opposite of the correct fact, a true-but-irrelevant fact (answers something else), and something never stated at all. Cross out irrelevant/opposite options first |
| Matching headings/paragraphs | Headings are listed in random order, not passage order | Ask "what is this paragraph's job?" (not its details) — read only the first line or two of each paragraph, hold 2 candidate headings if unsure, don't commit until you've seen all paragraphs |
| Classification | Answers do NOT follow passage order, and one option can be used more than once | Work option-by-option, not question-by-question: fully read everything about option A first, tag every statement it matches, then move to option B |
| Sentence completion / short answer | Blowing the word limit ("no more than two words") gets you zero even if the content is right | The sentence is paraphrased, not quoted — match meaning, not exact wording. New technical terms introduced in the passage are common answers. Count your words before writing |
General reading tips that aren't obvious: - There's no penalty for a wrong guess — never leave a box blank. - Spelling counts. A correct answer spelled wrong scores zero. - Questions generally follow passage order (classification is the exception) — if you're stuck on Q5, its answer sits between the answers to Q4 and Q6. - Don't panic over unfamiliar vocabulary in the passage itself — the questions test whether you can locate and match information, not your dictionary.
Listening: Tactics That Actually Matter
Watch for the "correction" trap. A very common Listening pattern: a speaker gives one piece of information, then corrects themselves ("actually, no — it's..."). Test-takers who write down the first thing they hear lose the point. Words like no, sorry, actually, I mean, or my mistake are your cue that the real answer is coming next. This shows up constantly with numbers, spellings, and names — treat those as always-verify-before-you-commit.
Read the question format literally. If the instruction says "no more than two words," a correct fact written in three words scores zero. If numbers are allowed, write the digit (34, not thirty-four) — it's faster and removes a spelling-error risk. If you're told to shorten a phrase to fit the limit, do it (e.g., an answer given in full as "editorial office manager" may need to become just "manager" to fit a one-word limit) — the exact original wording isn't what's being tested, whether you found the right idea is.
For multiple choice specifically: - Don't lock in the first option you hear — all the choices are often read aloud, and only one is correct. The other two exist to catch impatient listeners. - The correct answer isn't always mentioned first — options can come up in any order relative to how they're listed on the page. - Expect paraphrase, not exact matches. If the audio says "washing your hands and keeping clean," the correct option on paper might read "following hygiene rules." Don't wait for a verbatim match.
Writing: Scoring Mechanics Worth Knowing
Beyond the four criteria you'd expect — Task Achievement (Task 1) / Task Response (Task 2), Coherence & Cohesion, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range & Accuracy — two mechanical facts about how they combine into your final number are easy to miss:
- Your task score is a simple average of the four criteria. A 6.0 / 7.5 / 7.0 / 7.5 spread averages to 7.0 for that task — there's no single weak criterion that automatically caps you, but a criterion you're ignoring is dragging the average down just as much as any other.
- Task 2 is widely estimated to carry roughly double the weight of Task 1 in your overall Writing band. One common approximation used by tutors is (Task 2 score × 2 + Task 1 score) ÷ 3, but Cambridge, IDP and the British Council do not publish the exact weighting formula. What is certain is that Task 2 is the larger component — which is one more reason it deserves the larger share of your practice time. (Speaking uses the same "average four criteria" logic, just with Pronunciation replacing Task Achievement.)
General Writing Task 1 (the letter) has its own shape, distinct from the Academic chart-description task already covered on this site:
| Part | What goes there |
|---|---|
| Opening | State briefly why you're writing |
| Middle | One paragraph per bullet point given in the prompt — cover all of them |
| Closing | A polite sign-off appropriate to the register (personal / semi-formal / formal) implied by the prompt |
Picking the right register. The prompt tells you who you're writing to, and that decides everything: - Formal — you don't know the person, or they're an authority figure (a company, a landlord, an unnamed official). Opens "Dear Sir/Madam," closes "Yours faithfully," no contractions. See Formal Complaint Letter and Formal Request Letter. - Semi-formal — you know the person by name but the relationship is still professional (a colleague, a known landlord, a manager). Opens "Dear Mr./Ms. [Surname]," closes "Best regards" or "Yours sincerely" — a middle ground between the fully formal examples above and the informal one below: slightly warmer opening, no contractions, but still direct and businesslike. - Informal — you're writing to a friend or family member. Opens "Dear [First name]," closes "Best," contractions are fine. See Informal Letter.
Generating arguments for an opinion essay: before you commit to a side, sketch two or three supporting points for both possible positions, then pick whichever side you can argue more concretely — not necessarily the one you actually believe. This produces a stronger essay than defending a genuine opinion you can't easily justify in English.
A few tips that hold up: - Don't stuff essays with rare vocabulary to sound impressive — accurate and simple beats complex and slightly wrong. - There's a practical ceiling too, not just a floor: writing far beyond ~300 words (Task 2) or ~200 words (Task 1) increases your error rate and gives the examiner more to mark down, for no credit gained. - Memorized model paragraphs are a liability, not an asset — examiners are trained to notice generic, rehearsed language that doesn't fit the specific question, and it scores worse than an imperfect original answer.
Vocabulary for Describing Trends
Useful for Academic Task 1, organized by part of speech so you can vary your sentence structure instead of repeating "increased" every sentence:
| Direction | Nouns | Verbs | Adjectives / Adverbs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up | a rise, an increase, a surge, a peak | to rise, to increase, to grow, to peak; sharply up: to soar, to rocket, to leap | sharp(ly), dramatic(ally), significant(ly) / slight(ly), gradual(ly), steady (steadily) |
| Down | a fall, a decline, a decrease, a dip | to fall, to decline, to decrease, to dip; sharply down: to plunge, to plummet | (same modifier sets as above, applied to falls) |
| Neither | a fluctuation, a variation | to fluctuate, to vary | wildly / gently |
For proportions in a pie chart or table, plain phrasing usually reads better than forcing a number into an awkward sentence: "a small minority," "just under a fifth," "roughly two-thirds," "a significant majority."
Speaking: Tactics for the Live Exam
The examiner already expects hesitation, imperfect grammar, and nerves — you are not being compared to a native speaker giving a polished monologue. A few concrete habits move the needle more than vocabulary memorization:
- Never answer in one sentence. If a Part 1 question could be answered "no," don't stop there — add why, or a related detail. A one-word answer gives the examiner nothing to score.
- Buy yourself thinking time out loud, rather than going silent: "That's an interesting question, let me think..." or reformulating the question back to yourself both work, and don't cost you points.
- If you make a mistake, self-correct briefly and keep moving. A quick fix reads as normal fluency; stopping to agonize over it costs you more than the error itself did.
- Don't memorize full scripts. Examiners are trained to spot rehearsed, generic answers that don't quite fit the actual question asked, and it counts against you. Learn flexible vocabulary and collocations instead, so you can assemble a fresh answer live.
- Use linking words (however, moreover, all in all) to signal structure even in spontaneous speech — this feeds directly into the Fluency & Coherence criterion.
Building Topic Vocabulary
One habit the source site organizes well: build vocabulary in topic clusters (technology, sport, food, travel, education, health, environment, etc.) rather than as one long undifferentiated list — each cluster pairs a term with a short definition and an example sentence, e.g. cutting-edge (innovative, leading) — "cutting-edge technology." Learning clusters this way means that when Part 1 or Part 3 lands on a topic, you already have 5–10 ready phrases instead of reaching for the first vague word you can think of. Build your own small cluster for each common topic as you review — the specific words matter less than having some set ready per topic.
Common Task 2 essay themes worth having pre-built arguments for: education, environment, government & society, health, jobs & employment, relationships, science & technology, sport, travel & tourism, TV/music/media, art, friends & family. You don't need model essays memorized for each — just 2-3 stock arguments per theme, in your own words, that you can adapt to whatever exact question shows up.