Free IELTS study resources
300+ short, practical vocabulary, grammar, and strategy guides for Reading, Listening, Writing, and Speaking — not another question bank.
GT vs Academic Task 1: what actually changes
Same 20 minutes, same 150-word minimum, but the two Task 1s test almost nothing in common. Here's exactly what changes in structure, content, and register — and why studying one doesn't automatically prepare you for the other.
6 min readWritingThe 4 Writing criteria — what each one is really judging
Task Achievement, Coherence & Cohesion, Lexical Resource, Grammar. They sound similar and get taught as a checklist, but each measures a genuinely different skill — here's what separates a strong response from a weak one on each.
6 min readWritingTask 2 essay types: opinion, discussion, problem-solution, advantage-disadvantage
Task 2 prompts fall into five recognisable patterns, and each one expects a genuinely different essay structure. Identifying the wrong pattern before you start writing costs Task Response marks no amount of strong grammar or vocabulary can recover.
6 min readWriting5 sentence-level fixes that raise your Writing band fast
Five small, mechanical, highly repeatable error patterns that show up across almost every submission — fixing these first raises your Grammar and Lexical Resource bands faster than chasing bigger structural changes, because they cost marks on every single occurrence.
6 min readWritingIELTS vocabulary: the Environment
Environment is one of the most-tested Task 2 and Part 3 topics, and also one of the easiest to write about vaguely. Here's the full vocabulary set — causes, effects, solutions, and the confusions that cost marks — that actually moves the needle on Lexical Resource.
15 min readWritingIELTS vocabulary: Technology
Technology essays reward one thing above all: naming the specific mechanism of change rather than gesturing at "technology" as a single undifferentiated force. Here's the full vocabulary set for describing disruption, adoption, and risk with precision.
12 min readWritingIELTS vocabulary: Education
Education essays are graded partly on whether a candidate can name a specific mechanism — a teaching method, a funding structure, an outcome — rather than repeating "a good education" as if it were self-explanatory. Here's the vocabulary that gets you there.
12 min readWritingIELTS vocabulary: Health
Health topics reward candidates who can distinguish a cause from a system failure from an outcome, instead of collapsing everything into "unhealthy" and "the healthcare system." Here's the vocabulary that makes that distinction possible.
12 min readWritingIELTS vocabulary: Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment essays often collapse into a single question — punish or rehabilitate — without the vocabulary to explain why either approach actually works or fails. Here's the fuller set: causes, justice models, evidence, and the pairs candidates mix up.
12 min readWritingIELTS vocabulary: Work and Employment
Work essays default to "job satisfaction" and "good pay" as if those were the only two variables in employment. Here's the vocabulary for labour-market change, workplace structure, and the confusions that flatten an otherwise strong argument.
12 min readWritingIELTS vocabulary: Family and Relationships
Family topics look easy because everyone has personal experience of them — which is exactly why answers default to "close" and "supportive" instead of naming the structural changes actually reshaping family life. Here's the vocabulary for that.
12 min readWritingIELTS vocabulary: Media and Advertising
Media essays reward candidates who can distinguish who is producing content, why, and with what incentive — rather than treating "the media" as a single actor. Here's the vocabulary for platforms, persuasion, and the confusions that blur an argument.
12 min readWritingIELTS vocabulary: Government and Society
Government and Society prompts punish vague appeals to "the government should do more" — here's the vocabulary for naming which mechanism, which actor, and which trade-off an argument is actually about.
12 min readWritingIELTS vocabulary: City Life and Urbanisation
Urban topics need vocabulary that distinguishes growth from density from sprawl — three genuinely different phenomena candidates routinely collapse into a single vague claim about cities getting "bigger" or "more crowded."
12 min readWritingIELTS vocabulary: Tourism and Travel
Tourism essays default to "tourism is good for the economy but bad for the environment" without the vocabulary to say exactly how, or for whom. Here's the fuller set — economics, impact, management, and the confusions worth untangling.
12 min readWritingIELTS vocabulary: Food and Diet
Fast food, obesity, and food policy are frequent Task 2 essay topics, and Part 3 often follows a Part 2 cue card about a meal or cooking tradition — here is the full vocabulary set, from production to health outcomes, that replaces "healthy" and "junk food" with something an examiner actually credits.
13 min readWritingIELTS vocabulary: Housing
Housing affordability and homelessness are consistently tested Task 2 topics, and General Training letters sometimes address a specific housing problem directly — here is the vocabulary for discussing dwellings, tenure, and policy with real precision.
13 min readWritingIELTS vocabulary: Money and the Economy
Inequality, taxation, and inflation are among the most frequently tested Task 2 topics, and most essays never get past "the rich are getting richer" — here is the vocabulary for discussing economic mechanisms with the precision a Band 7+ script needs.
14 min readWritingIELTS vocabulary: Renewable Energy
Renewable energy is a common Task 1 chart topic and a Task 2 discussion point in its own right, distinct from environment essays generally — here is the vocabulary for discussing energy sources, the transition away from fossil fuels, and the technical trade-offs involved, at genuine band level.
13 min readWritingIELTS vocabulary: Population and Demographics
Ageing populations and declining birth rates are common Task 1 and Task 2 topics, and most essays never move past "there are more old people now" — here is the vocabulary for describing demographic change and its consequences with real precision.
13 min read