IELTS Advice: you need ideas and opinions

A problem for many students (for writing task 2 and speaking part 3) is that they don't have opinions. They don't have any idea what to write or say.

Look through the following list of common IELTS topics. Do you have opinions about them? Could you discuss them in an essay or in a conversation?

1. Advertising
2. Animal Rights: testing on animals, vegetarianism, zoos
3. Cities: urbanisation, problems of city life
4. Crime: police, punishments/prisons, rehabilitation, capital punishment
5. Education: studying abroad, technology in education, education in developing countries, higher education, home-schooling, bad behaviour, corporal punishment, single sex education, streaming (grouping children according to ability)
6. Environment: global warming, impact of humans on the environment, solutions to environment problems, waste/rubbish, litter, recycling, nuclear power
7. Family: family size, working parents, negative effects on children, divorce, care for old people
8. Gender: gender and education, gender and work, women’s and men’s role in the family
9. Genetic Engineering: positives, negatives, genetically modified foods
10. Global Issues: problems in developing countries, how to help developing countries, immigration, multi-cultural societies, globalisation
11. Government and Society: what governments can do, public services, censorship, video cameras in public places
12. Guns and Weapons: gun ownership and possession, police and guns, nuclear weapons, armed forces
13. Health: diet, exercise, state health systems, private healthcare, alternative medicine, stress
14. Housing and Architecture: state housing, old buildings, modern/green buildings
15. International Language: English as an international language
16. Money: money and society, consumerism
17. Personal Development: happiness, success, nature or nurture
18. Sport and Leisure: professional/competitive sport, sport salaries, sport and politics
19. Tourism: positives, negative effects on environment, future of tourism
20. Traditions and Modern Life: losing traditional skills, traditional customs
21. Transport: traffic problems and solutions, public transport, road safety
22. Television, Internet and Mobile Phones: positives and negatives, Internet compared to newspapers and books
23. Water: importance of clean water, water supply, water should be free, bottled water
24. Work: same job for life, self-employment, unemployment, work/life balance, technology and work, child labour

This is the topic list that I work with when preparing lessons, and it's the basis of my ebook. It's a good idea to print this list and try to work through it.

Comments

[Kamlesh]

hey Simon i got your Ebook and its really help-full and i used that idea in my recent exam but i am not sure its right or wrong because topic was " people believe that modern inventions brought many drawback then advantages " do you agree or disagree ? and i did writing for disagrees.

intro

Para 1 advantages
i use three most common inventions with firstly (mobile ) and some advantages , secondly(internet).. and finally ( medical technology)

para 2 disadvantages
all drawback of above tech

and conclusion .

i am wondering if you give me some comment about my idea and structure .. simply right or wrong.

Thanks

[Simon]

Hi Kamlesh,

I think your structure looks good and you used good examples to support your ideas.

The only thing to check is whether you answered the question clearly in your introduction and conclusion: did you give your opinion about whether there are more drawbacks than advantages?

[Sam]

Hi Simon,

Thank you so much for such a useful blog for the poor IELTS candidates :)

I have sat this test 5 times in the last 8 months and my band scores vary between 6 to 9!!!
Regarding the writing part, I am sometimes confused about how to organise my writing task 2. For instance, as was mentioned in your blog, one question was "Although tourism has some benefits, it will harm countries as well. How countries can avoid the harms so tourism can contribute to their development"
What I did was:

Intro: some say there are benefits, though others believe there are disadvantages

Par1: talking about benefits (1. Financial, 2. Cultural: tourists from different culture will introduce their culture to the host country)

Par2: talking about harms (1. Inflation: some business people inflate the charges 2. Cultural: some countries like the Middle East sometimes do not accept Western countries)

Par3: How to avoid the harms: Financial: governments can intervene by controlling tax for tourists, so any extra charge in collected by government not business people. Cultural: government may set regulations to avoid cultural differences and conflicts.

Conclusion: ...

All the answers included reasons and examples but my score was 6 :(

I found it very very useful when you provide some general answers to the questions, like when you say how you organize your writing. I so much appreciate if you give your own idea about the questions written in the recent IELTS questions part.

Thank you so much again
Sam

[Nazri]

Developing ideas is hard especially under pressure. I did not have time to study all the topics but I found it helpful to go in alphabetical order to generate ideas. If one is not suitable you can quickly move to the next one in alphabetical order instead of wandering your mind here and there. So, given any topic you can take many different perspectives. Here as some that I prepared

A: agriculture
B: business
C: cost
D: death
E: economics
F: financial
G: government
H: health
I: income
.......etc

[Kamlesh]

yes i completely mention about my potion that i am disagree with statement that modern invention brings more draw back .

[Simon]

Hi Sam,

Sorry to hear that you didn't get the score you wanted. I'll try to give more ideas for recent topics in future - good suggestion!

...

Thanks for sharing your technique Nazri.

...

Hi Kamlesh,

Ok, it's good that you made your position clear. In that case, your ideas and structure are fine.

[Karin]

Hello Simon,

thanks a lot for the helpful list.
I have found a lot of good ideas to most of the topics on your web site.
I am afraid I did not find any ideas to the " Gender" " Housing & Architecture" and " Tradition & Modern Life"- topics.
Maybe you can give us some ideas in one of your next lessons.
Thank you so much.
Kind regards
Karin

[Simon]

Hi Karin,

Have a look at today's lesson (2nd March) about gender. I'll try to cover more topics in future lessons.

[Karin]

Thanks a lot Simon

[Simon]

No problem.

[Chi]

Hi Simon, I lost the last two topic which are: water and work. Can you show me them, please!
Thank you so much!

[Simon]

Hi Chi,

I'm afraid I can't send parts of the ebook unless I know that the person paid for it.

If you bought the ebook but lost parts of it, you will need to send me an email - please include the full name and email address that you used, and the receipt number you got when you bought the ebook.

[Mariam]

Hi Simon,

i've two months left for my exam, i'm not that good in english on other hand i need to get 6.5 score, but i don't know how i could get it. to be added its my first time taking this exam kindly guide me into this matter.the most difficult part for me is the writing 1-2 section. If i get your ebook, could it be possible to at least guess about the topics and make practice over those topics?

[Mariam]

Hi Simon,

another question which i had from your kindself is that, if i only and only keep studying your posted materials then could it be possible for me to get 6.5 band in my ielts exam. to be added, my exam is going to held on 3rd december 2011

[Simon]

Hi Mariam,

It's certainly possible to get 6.5 if you use only my website and ebook - several students have been successful this way. Of course, the more practice the better, so I'd recommend the Cambridge IELTS books too, and some lessons with a teacher can help because it's useful to get someone to check and correct your essays.

The ebook contains the most common topics for writing task 2. I'm afraid it's impossible to guess what your question will be, but I'd start with the most common topics.

[Ambree]

Hello Simone,

I am confused on how to write the proper essay, even i am completely agree or disagree of the argument, do i still need to see the other side? Can i just stick to my points and discuss it in 2 supporting paragraphs instead? Please help me. Thanks!

[Simon]

Hi Ambree,

For 'agree or disagree' questions you don't need to give the other side. Just make your opinion clear, and support it.

[Arystanbek]

Hi Simon.I`ll be taking my IELTS exam on 10th of December 2011. And i`m looking forward to achieving band score 8.5. There`re no problems with reading and listening sections, but i may lose some valuable points in writing task 2 and in my speaking section as i`m not a native speaker and have never been to an English speaking country. I have lived in Kazakhstan for 17 years and i hope my cramming for the exam will be rewarded!!!))

[Simon]

Good luck Arystanbek. You've set yourself quite a challenge with 8.5! Let use know how it goes.

[josh]

hi simon
i need 7 in each band, and i have already got 7 in 3 band except writing. i have taken classes for writing as well, and my instructor says i have problem with articles and gramatical errors, so i have been foccussing on my grammer lately. i read your essay, and try to figure out what mistake i would have done if i write the same essay.every time i find new things that i would miss like for example 'commas and the article like 'the''a'. i will try to make as less mistakes as possible next time i sit for ielts. i got 6.5 twice i need 7 will i be able to get the score if i make less grammatical errors, i am also following your ebook along with your website. its really great.

thanks josh

[Simon]

Good work Josh.

You're doing the right thing. Just keep practising and analysing my essays in the way that you explained.

[K]

"narrative essays" e.g. describe your road side journey,

and "leadership / personality essays" e.g Nelson Mendal's leadership qualities

My IELTS teacher told me that these type of essays also come in exam in task 2.

Please reply asap as I'm taking exams this next week

[Simon]

Ki K,

No, those essay types won't appear in the IELTS test.

[K]

Somin, in Task 1, sometimes the diagram is given (not graph). is this type of summary writing in Task 1 also comes in Academic IELTS?

For example, IELTS 8 page number 77.

[Simon]

Hi K,

Yes, have a look through my task 1 lessons to see some diagram questions.

[Dipak]

Hi simon
I have after 2weeks exam for ielts academy and i need 6.5band,,i am worry about speaking test, in speaking i get some idea of any topic which i want to speak but whenever i going to speak i get hegitate to speak and i am going to thinking what to speak it making me confused when i am speaking,,so how i can improve my speaking non stop with some impresive words,,, please help me kindly waiting for your reply

[Simon]

Hi Dipak,

My advice is to forget about impressive words. Just try to relax and answer naturally, without thinking too much about grammar or big words. Good luck!

[ROSANNEEaton31]

That is understandable that money makes people independent. But how to act when somebody doesn't have money? The one way only is to try to get the home loans or just secured loan.

[Shaji]

Hi,

I need to get overall score 6.0 in each of the four skills. Please suggest me something effective via email.

Thanks in advance.

[samuel mathaikutty]

hai simon sir .I have write ielts many times in the uk as well as india.I work hard ,but no improvements.I want individual seven.Really i am despirated.What i want to do.Basically i am a nurse.Can you help me to get 7 band.Please give me the reply.I would like to buy your study meterials by post.thank you.