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	<title>Dominic Cole&#039;s IELTS Blog &#187; General</title>
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	<description>A teacher&#039;s guide to IELTS preparation</description>
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		<title>IELTS band score calculator</title>
		<link>http://www.dcielts.com/blog/general/online-ielts-band-score-calculator/</link>
		<comments>http://www.dcielts.com/blog/general/online-ielts-band-score-calculator/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:36:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dominic Cole</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[band score]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dcielts.com/?p=1634</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is just a brief post to announce that I have added an interactive reading and listening band score calculator to the site. As you are preparing and practising tests  it is obviously useful to check your progress. I have also added information and links to explain what the band scores mean.
The calculator can be [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>IELTS and Google News Timeline</title>
		<link>http://www.dcielts.com/blog/general/ielts-and-google-news-timeline/</link>
		<comments>http://www.dcielts.com/blog/general/ielts-and-google-news-timeline/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:21:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dominic Cole</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[daily exercises]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[video]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dcielts.com/?p=1511</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is another of my little but often series. If you are new to this site, the idea is that one of the best ways to learn English can be to do short focussed activities for a short period of time rather than sitting in front of a computer screen or a book for hours. [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>IELTS Books &#8211; some recommendations</title>
		<link>http://www.dcielts.com/blog/general/ielts-books-some-recommendations/</link>
		<comments>http://www.dcielts.com/blog/general/ielts-books-some-recommendations/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:52:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dominic Cole</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[books]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dcielts.com/?p=1402</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This blog is largely intended for candidates who are studying alone for the IELTS exam. The internet is good, but books are useful too, right?  So here are some of my suggestions. There are of course other books out there, but here are some I know and can recommend.
This is one area where it pays [...]]]></description>
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		<title>IELTS writing &#8211; task response explained</title>
		<link>http://www.dcielts.com/blog/general/ielts-writing-task-response/</link>
		<comments>http://www.dcielts.com/blog/general/ielts-writing-task-response/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 20 Dec 2009 13:22:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dominic Cole</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[band score]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dcielts.com/?p=1351</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This article looks at task response in IELTS writing which is one of the 4 grading criteria. In it, I look at what task response means in detail and give examples of common mistakes that candidates make. Understanding these mistakes should help improve your IELTS writing.
There are 4 issues to think about.
1. Answer all parts [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>IELTS exam day tips</title>
		<link>http://www.dcielts.com/blog/general/ielts-exam-day-tips/</link>
		<comments>http://www.dcielts.com/blog/general/ielts-exam-day-tips/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:54:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dominic Cole</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tips]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dcielts.com/?p=1297</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[These are some tips for what to do on the day of the exam itself and immediately before it. While IELTS is a test to measure your English, it does of course feel like an exam and the people who do best in exams tend to be those who have exam day strategies. This is [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<title>8 ways to pass IELTS</title>
		<link>http://www.dcielts.com/blog/general/8-ways-to-pass-ielts/</link>
		<comments>http://www.dcielts.com/blog/general/8-ways-to-pass-ielts/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:40:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dominic Cole</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IELTS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dcielts.com/?p=1281</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is the follow up post to Why I love IELTS. The message is relatively simple: I hate IELTS because many candidates don&#8217;t really understand it and because of that they don&#8217;t get their score and because of that their careers go phut. Bad news. Here I am going to try and give some practical [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<title>Why I love IELTS</title>
		<link>http://www.dcielts.com/blog/general/why-i-love-ielts/</link>
		<comments>http://www.dcielts.com/blog/general/why-i-love-ielts/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:41:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dominic Cole</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IELTS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dcielts.com/?p=1275</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My Twitter profile says “hate IELTS”. In fact, I don’t. Or not completely. I believe that IELTS is a good test. One reason I do hate it though is that many candidates don’t understand it. What is worse is that because they don’t understand it, they stop learning English. What is even worse is that [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>A little but often &#8211; RSS feeds</title>
		<link>http://www.dcielts.com/blog/reading-blog/a-little-but-often-rss-feeds/</link>
		<comments>http://www.dcielts.com/blog/reading-blog/a-little-but-often-rss-feeds/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 Dec 2009 23:20:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dominic Cole</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reading]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[daily exercises]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[newspapers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rss feeds]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dcielts.com/?p=1039</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is in effect a repost from my previous site. I do think, however, it is worth looking at. What I have done here is to organise some RSS feeds from news organisations into the main IELTS categories. These feeds are, if you like, the news as it happens. The basic idea is this. Reading [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
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		<title>Interactive IELTS exercises</title>
		<link>http://www.dcielts.com/blog/general/interactive-ielts-exercises/</link>
		<comments>http://www.dcielts.com/blog/general/interactive-ielts-exercises/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 28 Nov 2009 12:11:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dominic Cole</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[interactive exercises]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dcielts.com/?p=1002</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is just to let you know that I have collected the links to some of my interactive IELTS exercises onto one page. For me, the internet and computer work particularly well for this type of exercise. I also like them because they are fun and fun does tend to be good for learning.
interactive exercises
I [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>IELTS and Youtube</title>
		<link>http://www.dcielts.com/blog/general/ielts-and-youtube/</link>
		<comments>http://www.dcielts.com/blog/general/ielts-and-youtube/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 28 Nov 2009 10:24:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dominic Cole</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[recommended websites]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.dcielts.com/?p=997</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Youtube is a fantastic IELTS resource and there is a lot of extremely good material out there. Perhaps there is too much, so here are two places to start:
voxguru: for me the king. The videos are low tech and unexciting, but the advice is as good as you will find anywhere.
EnglishRyan: also very sound advice [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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