Exam tip:1

i • You can often recognize whether a word is a noun, verb, adjective or adverb

from its ending.

: • Adjectives can have many different endings, but these are common.

-able/-ible vulnerable, flexible -ic idealistic

-al conventional -ive co-operative

-ant/-ent tolerant, consistent, efficient -ous autonomous

j • Learn to recognize these.

Exam tip:2 In Part 4 of the IELTS Listening exam you have to listen to a talk on a topic of

general academic interest.

You do not need to know all of the vocabulary.

If you hear a word you don’t know, listen for expressions like:

a i.e.

b in other words

c that is

d by ... I mean

e that is to say

The text that follows these expressions helps you understand the word.

Example: Employers value conscientious workers, that is workers who complete tasks

with care.

Exam tip:3 In Part 4 of the IELTS Listening exam you have to listen to a talk on a topic of

general academic interest.

You do not need to know all of the vocabulary.

If you hear a word you don’t know, listen for expressions like:

a i.e.

b in other words

c that is

d by ... I mean

e that is to say
The text that follows these expressions helps you understand the word.

Example: Employers value conscientious workers, that is workers who complete tasks

with care.

Exam tip:4 In the IELTS Reading exam you may have to indicate whether statements

about a passage are True, False or Not given (i.e. not mentioned).

You can often recognize a True statement if you can match it to a part of the passage

that expresses the same idea in different words.

Recognizing synonyms (words with approximately the same meaning) can help you do this.

Example: Allergies are common in wealthy countries. Allergies are common in affluent

countries.

Exam tip: Words for academic subjects can have many different endings, but these are

common.

-ics: statistics -logy: biology -y: philosophy

Learn to recognize these.

Exam tip: Words for naming people by their occupations often end in -er.

Examples: teacher/farmer/miner

Words for naming people who study academic subjects for a living usually end in -ist.

Examples: biologist/physicist

Learn to recognize these.

Exam tip: When writing in the IELTS exam you need to use not only the right words but

j also the right parts of speech, for example:

Thompson and her colleagues analyse IverbJ the samples using the antibody test.

The main results of the analysis [noun] are summarized below.

i I have an analytical Iadjective] approach to every survey.

I When you learn a new word, learn its associated parts of speech.