Advanced English / IELTS

One of the biggest fears of my students is making spelling mistakes. Just imagine: you developed perfect skills, you have a perfect structure of your essay, you got inspiration, but you are not sure how to write a word that conveys the best possible meaning. In this case, my advice is to paraphrase, it's much better than to make a mistake. But if you are only preparing for your exam and have some time, here are some articles that will help you avoid some common mistakes in IELTS.
https://ielts-academic.com/2012/07/25/common-spelling-mistakes-in-ielts/

https://ieltsninja.com/content/common-grammar-mistakes-in-ielts-writing/

9 Common Grammar mistakes in IELTS writing // IELTS Ninja Stop making these Common Grammar Mistakes. It will take away your marks in IELTS Exam. Grammar Mistake No. 1 ...

When you are preparing for the IELTS exam, you should have synonyms emerging in your head immediately.
-Why? The whole exam is based on paraphrasing and synonyms. All the sections, especially writing and speaking. The more synonyms you know - the better.
-How to practice? Try to read an article and let synonyms of different words and phrases pop into your head. If they don't, look them up on Google, typing "phrase...synonyms".
Let's practice now! Look at the picture with the text from the book "English collocations in use" Advanced and at the possible synonyms.

Practised medicine - worked as a doctor
carve a niche for myself - make a special position for myself
opposite number - someone doing the same job in a different location

took up the post - started work.
Continue with the rest of the phrases in bold. Do you need to use a dictionary?

A lot of students struggle to pass IELTS because they think they need to use extremely sophisticated words and phrases. Well, that's true, but these phrases should sound natural. A bunch of advanced words that are not used even by native speakers will not solve the problem - you need to pay attention to natural collocations. We're going to practice them this week.
Also, this week we are going to talk about a job.
Here is the first task for you.
1) Read the text and try to change the collocation in bold.
Use synonyms.
2) Check the right answer in the photo attached
3) Compare. What could you have done better?
4) Don't worry if you used other collocations. Just try to remember these ones.

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝟮𝟱, I 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 in a language school. I 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆 but I could 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝘃𝗶𝘃𝗲 and I 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗷𝗼𝗯. The other 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗲𝘀 were nice. A few years later, after 𝗜 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝗮 𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱, I decided to 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁-𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲. Luckily 𝗜 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 with another woman who had a small child. Then the school began to go through a difficult period and had to 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲 staff. I decided 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿. I had managed to build up a network of contacts and this gave me a good start. I soon had 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 – private students and marking exams – and was able to 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆.

(the pic below is from the book "English collocations in Use Advanced" by Michael McCarthy and Felicity O'Dell)

Map shows the literal meaning of every country’s name. There are beautiful stories and meanings behind every country’s name. Well, there should be! Etymology is an interesting subject of its own, add in some geography to it and you will be amazed…

Most students don't worry about pronunciation. And what pronunciation, British or American, do you have?https://pronunciationstudio.com/american-vs-british-pronunciation/?fbclid=IwAR06Qombz9NHqUOR-cz5kchr5rQZPdCux6r5YMcMMJOwdd3TRmXMM1m4h48

Do you need some inspiration? Watch this TED talk 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_XVt5rdpFY

The secrets of learning a new language | Lýdia Machová Want to learn a new language but feel daunted or unsure where to begin? You don't need some special talent or a "language gene," says Lýdia Machová. In an up...