When you are studying for IELTS, it is sensible to concentrate on language that will be most useful in the test. Here is a suggestion for you: study the language of problems. This is a very important area of language because almost every IELTS essay task will ask you to write about a problem and if you want to get a good band score in lexical resource you will need variety of language for “problems”.
In this post you will find a brief explanation of what words you need and how to learn them. There is also:
- a free download of useful vocabulary
- an interactive exercise to practise some vocabulary
- a writing exercise for IELTS essay introductions
What words do you need?
This will depend on your target band score but you will need variety in these areas:
- nouns: eg, problem, difficulty, concern, issue
- adjectives: eg, serious, major, minor, significant, insignificant
- verbs: eg, have, experience, deal with, tackle, solve, resolve
If you are aiming for band 7 or above, you will also need to be able to use these words accurately in word combinations (collocations) and it will help to learn some idiomatic phrases such as:
- be a headache for
- address a problem
- face a problem
How can you learn these phrases?
There is no one answer to this question but here are one or two suggestions:
- do not try to learn too much at once: if you do, you may become confused
- do not learn words by themselves, learn them in combinations as that is how you need to use them
- try to use the phrases for yourself by using them to describe problems you know about
- use a dictionary to look at examples: examples are often much more useful than definitions
Problem vocabulary download
Problem vocabulary for IELTS essays (14367)Interactive exercise
If you are looking for some quick online practice in how to use problem language, you can try my interactive online exercise
More practice – IELTS essay introductions
One place you may need this vocabulary is in the introduction to your IELTS essay. In the introduction you need to state what the problem/issue behind the task is. You should also use your own words for this and just repeat the wording of the question. Here is a sample IELTS essay question:
The idea of having a single career is becoming an old fashioned one. The new fashion will be to have several careers or ways of earning money and further education will be something that continues throughout life. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
What is the problem/issue behind this question? Can you rewrite the question in your own words using some “problem” language? My solution is attached as a comment.
One complex question nowadays is whether people will only have one career or move from job to job and continue to study throughout their working lives.
how long should be the introduction???
I suggest no more than 3 sentences. However, there are no rules here and different approaches are possible. What is important is that you identify the question and make clear to the examiner what your point of view or approach is.
that is useful.thanks.
Your guide is so helpful. I would want to visit this website often.
The premise of choosing a single profession has become an old fashion and gradually loosing its flavor. In the modern world, more and more people are inclined toward a multi-faceted career path with life long learning that in turn could bring them additional money. This issue will be addressed with some real life examples supporting my opinion of how a multi-career approach with additional studies will outweigh a monotonous career path.
great intro
Impressive. Are you a native speaker ?:)
Born and bred
It is often said that in old times people like to have one profession rather than different careers.
It is often said that in times gone by people preferred to remain in one profession and not to change careers.
Be careful with your tenses. I have also given you some better vocab, but the killer is to get the basic tenses wrong.