Original English Test Coach learning resource · 28 September 2026
Read the lesson, answer its three knowledge checks and try the writing exercise before consulting the answer key. Open this file offline in a browser; use the browser's Print or Save as PDF for a paper copy. This document contains no scripts, fonts or media that need an internet connection. External reference links require a connection.
Original English Test Coach teaching material. Practice checks are not IELTS scores, examiner marking or a guarantee of improvement. Examples illustrate techniques; do not memorise them as exam answers.
This edition includes worked extensions on introductions and conclusions, cohesion, faithful paraphrasing, vocabulary and sentence repairs, and a timed writing routine. This is a foundation guide, not a complete language course. The writing exercises are self-review, not automatically marked. This download contains prepared material only, not your account data or answers from the website.
Lesson 1 · Both Task 2 formats
Turn instructions into a focused position and a plan that covers every part.
A topic tells you what to discuss; the instruction tells you what to do with it. For a question about whether flexible work has more advantages than disadvantages, a list of advantages is not enough. You need to compare the two sides and reach a judgement. Circle limiting words such as some, children or in cities. They prevent a broad, prepared essay from drifting away from the actual question.
Write a short planning note for each required part. A discuss-both-views question with an opinion needs both views and your position. A causes-and-solutions question needs an explanation of causes and responses to those causes, not a list of unrelated benefits. These notes are a private planning aid; turn them into connected paragraphs in the final answer. Choose a few claims that you can explain well instead of mentioning every possible idea.
A position can be qualified: flexible work may help experienced staff while creating difficulties for new starters. Explain why the balance still favours one conclusion. Check the introduction, body and conclusion together. If your conclusion reverses your opening view, either explain that development or revise the opening. Do not attach a memorised conclusion which contradicts the reasoning you actually wrote.
Before: Working from home is popular. This essay will discuss work.
After: Although home working can make training harder, its flexibility is a greater benefit when teams keep regular office days.
The revised position answers a balance question, acknowledges a limitation and identifies a condition. It is a planning example, not a sentence to use for every topic.
In many countries, working from home is becoming increasingly common. Do the advantages of this development outweigh the disadvantages?
Working from home has become an ordinary arrangement for many employees whose jobs can be performed online. Although this shift can make collaboration more difficult, I believe its benefits generally outweigh its drawbacks, provided that employers deliberately protect opportunities for colleagues to work together.
This opening judges the benefits greater than the drawbacks, with a condition: employers must preserve collaboration. The body needs to develop those benefits and address the communication problem.
Overall, the reduction in commuting and the broader access to jobs are substantial advantages. While remote work needs thoughtful management, its communication problems can often be reduced without giving up the flexibility that makes it valuable.
The judgement remains favourable and qualified. Reduced commuting and wider job access come from the advantage paragraph; managing communication comes from the drawback paragraph. The conclusion does not introduce a new benefit.
An incompatible ending would be: Therefore, working from home should end and every employee should return to the office full-time. It reverses the opening judgement without supporting that reversal.
Write a different opening and ending for this question. Underline each judgement and circle any condition. Check that both follow your planned reasons. You need consistent reasoning, not identical wording.
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Write a two-sentence position for this original question: Some towns want to make their centres car-free. Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages? Acknowledge one limitation without avoiding the judgement.
Lesson 2 · Both Task 2 formats
Connect a claim, its explanation and a relevant example without padding.
A paragraph should help the reader follow one main strand of your argument. Begin with a claim you can support, then explain the mechanism behind it. Practical university assignments can help students apply theory: the useful explanation is how making decisions in a realistic problem reveals gaps in their understanding. Merely repeating that practical assignments are useful does not develop the claim.
Use a small, relevant situation to demonstrate the explanation. An engineering student choosing a material for a model bridge makes an abstract trade-off concrete. Explain how that choice connects to learning. You do not need invented survey percentages or a fictional authority. If a situation is hypothetical, present it as an example rather than claiming it happened in a published study.
Cohesion comes from relationships as well as linking words. A pronoun, repeated key term or clear sequence can connect sentences naturally. However signals a contrast; therefore signals a consequence. Adding either word where that relationship does not exist makes the paragraph less clear. Read without the linking words first, then add only the connections the reader actually needs.
Before: Projects are good. Furthermore, projects are useful. Moreover, students like projects.
After: Projects let students test an idea against practical constraints. For example, designing a simple bridge requires them to balance material strength with cost. That decision gives a concrete purpose to the theory studied in class.
The paragraph develops one educational benefit and uses an example to show how it works. It does not rely on a chain of near-identical claims.
Those who favour academic study argue that universities should offer more than training for a first job. A student who understands the principles behind a subject is better placed to respond when current techniques become outdated. In engineering, for instance, learning why a structure carries a load is more transferable than memorising the steps in one design program. Academic work also encourages students to question assumptions and evaluate evidence. These habits can remain useful throughout a career, even when a graduate changes employer or moves into a different field.
For instance introduces an illustration: the engineering example makes the claim about transferable knowledge concrete. Also adds a related benefit: questioning assumptions and evaluating evidence. Adding also to a repeated claim would not create a new reason.
These habits refers to those two identifiable actions. Naming the kind of idea makes the reference clearer than an unexplained this or they. The final sentence can then explain their lasting value without repeating everything.
Before: Universities can offer projects and careers talks. They help students apply theory.
Does they mean universities, projects, talks or both activities? If you mean projects, write: Practical projects help students apply theory. Keep a pronoun when its meaning is clear; name the idea again when the reader would otherwise have to guess.
Original practice extract, before: This flexibility can remain useful when the methods used in a workplace change. For example, an engineering student could use general principles to compare two bridge designs rather than memorise instructions for a single project. Universities should preserve time for academic theory because it can help students apply what they know to unfamiliar problems. Understanding why a method works allows a graduate to adapt it instead of simply repeating familiar steps.
The same sentences, reordered: Universities should preserve time for academic theory because it can help students apply what they know to unfamiliar problems. Understanding why a method works allows a graduate to adapt it instead of simply repeating familiar steps. For example, an engineering student could use general principles to compare two bridge designs rather than memorise instructions for a single project. This flexibility can remain useful when the methods used in a workplace change.
The first version opens with This flexibility before identifying the flexible skill. Its example also arrives before the claim it illustrates. The revision begins with the position, explains adaptation, makes that process concrete and ends with a related longer-term benefit. No new evidence or linking words were added; the order now supplies context before asking the reader to use it.
This order fits the chosen argument; it is not a compulsory paragraph template. A different paragraph might begin with a concrete example and then interpret it, provided references remain clear and the reader can follow the purpose.
Reorder these three sentences without adding connectors: (1) This experience can make the first workplace task less unfamiliar. (2) For example, a supervised placement could let a student explain a technical problem to a client. (3) Practical university training can give students a supported introduction to workplace communication.
One coherent order is 3, 2, 1: the claim about communication comes first, the placement illustrates it, and This experience then has an identifiable reference. The example supports practical training; it would not by itself establish that universities should abandon academic study.
Underline each referring phrase and identify its target. Label whether each new sentence explains, illustrates, adds to or qualifies the main claim. Repair missing reasoning before adding a connector. No fixed quota of linking words guarantees a band score.
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Develop this claim in three sentences: Community gardens can help neighbours get to know one another. Include a mechanism and a specific illustrative situation, without inventing statistics.
Lesson 3 · Academic Task 1
Build an overview, group useful comparisons and handle numbers accurately.
Identify the subject, units, categories and time span before writing. Percentages describe shares, not necessarily the number of people. A table comparing three towns at one point in time does not show a trend over time. Keep these distinctions in your planning notes so that you do not turn a snapshot into an increase or infer population totals from percentages alone.
An overview describes the most important pattern: a dominant category, a major contrast or a clear change. Supporting paragraphs supply selected values and comparisons. Avoid describing every cell in the order it appears. Group towns with similar patterns or contrast the largest and smallest categories. An overview is not an opinion about whether the pattern is good, and explanations for causes should not be invented from a visual that does not show them.
If a share goes from 20% to 30%, the difference is 10 percentage points. Relative to the original 20%, it is a 50% increase. These are different statements, so name the measure you mean. When a chart can only be read approximately, use about or approximately rather than presenting false precision. Recheck every copied number and its category before submitting.
Before: The share rose from 20% to 30%, an increase of 10%.
After: The share rose by 10 percentage points, from 20% to 30%.
The revision names the absolute difference between the two percentages. It avoids confusing that difference with the relative increase.
An original practice table shows travel shares in two fictional towns: Alder — car 55%, bus 25%, cycle 20%; Birch — car 35%, bus 45%, cycle 20%. Write a two-sentence overview. Do not infer population sizes or changes over time.
Lesson 4 · Academic Task 1
Follow stages and locations while separating shown facts from assumptions.
A process may travel left to right across one row and return in the opposite direction below. Follow arrows and numbered stages before drafting. Identify the starting material, the end product and whether the diagram actually closes a cycle. Do not describe a sequence as a cycle simply because the subject involves recycling: the drawing must show the return connection.
Use verbs that describe the shown actions: paper is sorted, mixed or dried. The passive is useful when the material matters more than the unknown operator, but it is not compulsory in every sentence. Link stages with before, after or once when the order is clear. Avoid invented temperatures, machinery or durations. If a detail is not legible, acknowledge the uncertainty rather than supplying a plausible industrial explanation.
For a before-and-after map, identify what was added, removed, relocated or left unchanged. A room taking on a new purpose is not necessarily a building being demolished. Use labels and clearly shown reference points to describe position. Do not add dates or compass directions unless the visual supplies them. Group connected changes so the reader can understand the redevelopment, not just follow an inventory of objects.
Before: The old reading room was demolished and a cafe was built to the north in 2020.
After: The space previously labelled reading room is shown as a cafe in the new plan.
If the plans show only labels and layouts, the cautious version describes the change in use without inventing demolition, dates or orientation.
A simplified original process has four labelled stages: collect paper → sort paper → mix paper with water → dry into sheets. Write two connected sentences. No other machinery, timing or return arrow is shown.
Lesson 5 · General Training Task 1
Cover the requested points and write naturally for the intended recipient.
A close friend, a colleague you know and an unfamiliar organisation call for different choices of language. Decide what the reader knows about the situation and what they need from you. An informal letter can be warm and conversational without becoming unclear. A formal complaint can be firm without sounding aggressive. Match your opening, requests and closing to the relationship throughout.
Use the task's requested points as a coverage check. If you need to describe a purchase, explain a problem and request a solution, give each function enough space to work. Saying only that an item is bad does not help the recipient understand the problem. A precise detail, such as a cracked shade or a missing part, lets you explain why a particular remedy is appropriate.
Place the purpose near the beginning and make the next step explicit. Could you arrange a replacement? is a clear request; I hope you understand is not a substitute for one. Choose a reasonable level of politeness rather than stacking several elaborate phrases. Review the letter as its recipient: can they identify the situation, your concern and the action you want without guessing?
Before: Hey shop! The thing is terrible. Fix it now!!!
After: I am writing about the desk lamp delivered yesterday. Its shade arrived cracked, so I would like to request a replacement.
The revision identifies the purchase, gives a concrete defect and states a remedy in a suitable tone for an unfamiliar retailer.
Write the opening and a request for a letter to an unfamiliar course administrator. You cannot attend next week's class because your work schedule changed. Ask about joining another session.
Lesson 6 · All writing formats
Practise paraphrasing, collocation and precise vocabulary without changing meaning.
Before replacing a word, explain what you actually want to say. Cheap may mean affordable, low-cost or poor-quality, depending on context. A replacement that sounds impressive but changes the claim weakens the writing. Keep an accurate common phrase when you are unsure. Precision includes the strength of a statement: may reduce a problem is different from will eliminate it.
Useful vocabulary is not a bag of interchangeable words. Learn a phrase with its normal grammatical frame: provide access to something, benefit from something, or take responsibility for something. Check countability and word form too. Advice is normally uncountable, while a recommendation can be counted. Write a fresh sentence about a different topic to test whether you understand the pattern rather than remember one example.
Repeating a key term can keep a technical explanation clear. Replacing every instance of public transport with a different expression may create ambiguity. Vary language when the meaning remains stable, and use pronouns only when the reference is obvious. In final review, focus on vague claims, awkward combinations and unsuitable tone rather than chasing a large number of rare words.
Before: The policy will absolutely eradicate every food problem.
After: The policy may make healthier food more affordable for low-income households.
The revision narrows the claim to a plausible intended effect. It improves precision and limits certainty instead of simply adding difficult vocabulary.
Some people think that managing personal finances should be taught as a compulsory subject at school. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Faithful restatement: Some argue that schools should make lessons in managing personal finances compulsory.
Meaning-changing rewrite: Everyone agrees that schools must teach children how to become wealthy investors.
The first version preserves the limited group expressing the view and the proposed compulsory financial education. The second changes some people into everyone and personal finance into becoming wealthy. A clear paraphrase can change the structure without replacing every word. Your own response to the instruction still needs to follow.
The original regional-transport task pairs a chart of annual passenger journeys in millions with a table of average single fares in pounds. Both compare buses, trains and ferries in 2010 and 2025.
Faithful restatement: The chart compares annual bus, train and ferry journeys, in millions, in 2010 and 2025. The table presents the average single fare in pounds for each mode in those years.
Meaning-changing rewrite: The figures explain why more passengers bought expensive tickets throughout the period from 2010 to 2025.
Journeys are trips, not unique people. Two yearly snapshots do not show every intervening year, and the visuals do not establish causes. Check the complete source online before writing a report of its trends.
Preserve who or what is involved, limiting words such as some and average, the level of certainty, and any dates, quantities or units. Then separate restatement from analysis: an essay needs your answer to the instruction, and a report needs its main features. These examples are teaching comparisons, not sentences to memorise or band guarantees.
Before: Classes give many informations, so residents can do better choices and become more confidence.
After: Practical classes can give residents information about food labels. This may help them make more informed choices and feel more confident when comparing products.
Information is uncountable in this meaning: use information or, when counting, pieces of information. The revised sentence also names what the information concerns. Make choices is the usual word combination, rather than do choices. Confident is an adjective after feel; confidence is a noun, as in build confidence. Each repair has a different job.
Instruction ensures optimal nutritional behaviour sounds formal but loses the concrete explanation and changes a possible benefit into a guaranteed result. An impressive synonym is not an improvement if it changes the claim.
Revise: The travel adviser gave several advices, which helped me make a good decide about my journey. Check what can be counted, the word form and what good means in this context.
One possible revision: The travel adviser gave me advice about bus connections, which helped me choose a route with fewer changes.
Advice is uncountable here. Choose is a verb; make a decision is another valid construction. Fewer changes makes the benefit specific. The particular advice is an illustrative detail for this exercise, not a claim about a real journey.
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Rewrite this vague claim more precisely without making a guarantee: Better buses will solve everything in cities. Name one possible benefit and who might gain from it.
Lesson 7 · All writing formats
Repair common patterns and add complexity only when it helps the meaning.
Long phrases can hide a simple agreement error. In the sentence The number of workers is rising, the subject's head is number, not workers. By contrast, Workers are changing their routines has a plural subject. Strip away descriptive phrases temporarily to check the underlying pattern. Use a tense that fits the time shown or the situation, not the tense in a memorised model paragraph.
Two independent clauses cannot normally be joined by only a comma. Buses are convenient, they can be crowded can become two sentences, or a single sentence with a suitable conjunction. A dependent clause introduced by although needs a main clause to complete it. Read for the relationship you mean: contrast, cause or condition. Punctuation and conjunctions should express that relationship together.
After fixing a sentence, write two new sentences using the same grammatical pattern with different content. This tests whether the correction has become a skill. Mix shorter and longer sentences according to the idea. A long sentence is not automatically better, and excessive nesting can obscure a sound argument. On review, check sentence boundaries, agreement and recurring personal errors before attempting decorative complexity.
Before: Although working at home saves time. People is sometimes isolated.
After: Although working at home saves time, people are sometimes isolated.
The revised sentence joins the dependent contrast clause to a main clause and uses a plural verb with people. Both repairs preserve the original contrast.
Before: Remote work can save commuting time, it can make teamwork harder.
Joining two complete clauses with only a comma creates a comma splice. These original examples illustrate sentence choices, not findings from a study. Decide how the ideas relate before choosing a repair.
Two sentences: Remote work can save commuting time. It can make teamwork harder. Each clause stands alone, with no added cause-and-effect relationship.
Explicit contrast: Remote work can save commuting time, but it can make teamwork harder. The comma and but connect two complete clauses and highlight a trade-off.
Semicolon: Remote work can save commuting time; it can make teamwork harder. The semicolon connects closely related complete clauses without explaining why either claim is true.
Because remote work can save commuting time, it can make teamwork harder.
This version presents saved commuting time as a reason for difficulty with teamwork. The original pair of claims did not establish that relationship. Do not add because merely to create a complex sentence. None of these punctuation choices earns a band score on its own.
Repair this pair while keeping the contrast: Shared offices allow quick questions, they may interrupt concentrated work.
One possible repair: Shared offices allow quick questions, but they may interrupt concentrated work. Now find two related claims in your own draft. Check that each clause is complete and that the connection says what you mean.
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Repair these sentences while keeping the contrast: Although cycling is inexpensive. Some journeys are too long. Then write one different sentence using although.
Lesson 8 · All writing formats
Use a timed routine, check word meaning after spelling review and turn feedback into a specific next exercise.
The writing paper lasts 60 minutes. Official guidance allocates about 20 minutes to Task 1 and 40 to Task 2; Task 2 carries twice the weight. The minimum lengths are 150 and 250 words respectively. Use timed practice to find a workable division between planning, drafting and review within each task. A long first response can consume the time needed to complete the second, so practise stopping and moving on.
First check coverage: have you answered the actual instructions and supported the main points? Then check organisation and unclear references. Finally, target language errors you often make. Trying to check everything in every sentence can lead to aimless rereading. Do not replace a clear paragraph at the last moment merely because a different structure looks more impressive.
Choose one recurring issue and practise it in a small new example before writing another full response. If a tool suggests a correction, compare it with the exact original and check that the meaning survives. AI feedback can be mistaken, especially about visual details. Keep the original response and the revision so that you can explain the change. A practice-check result or estimated band is not a guaranteed exam result.
Before: Next time I will improve everything and use more difficult words.
After: Before my next essay, I will write two paragraphs that explain one claim with a relevant example, then check whether each example supports the claim.
The revised plan defines a small action and an observable check. It turns a broad intention into a repeatable practice routine.
Official guidance recommends about 20 minutes for Task 1 and 40 for Task 2. The smaller allocations below are an English Test Coach practice example. Adjust them after a timed attempt while preserving enough time for both tasks.
Task 1: read and plan during minutes 0-3; write during minutes 3-17; review during minutes 17-20.
Task 2: read and plan during minutes 0-5; write during minutes 5-35; review during minutes 35-40.
Plan a visual report around an overview and useful detail groups. For a letter, note the purpose, recipient and three task points. For an essay, answer every instruction and choose supporting reasons.
Draft from that small plan rather than adding a new idea whenever one occurs to you. Review required task parts first, then your position or overview, then recurring language errors. Check the minimum length: 150 words for Task 1 and 250 for Task 2.
In this routine, move to review with three minutes left on Task 1 or five on Task 2. Prioritise a missing required point and a clear ending over another example. Move on at the end of Task 1 so it does not consume Task 2's time. After practice, note where time went and change one part of your next plan.
Use a clock offline or choose Start timer in the online writing workspace. The practice timer does not submit or lock your answer when it ends. Download a draft before changing tasks if you want to keep a copy. The writing tools work without AI assessment; these exercises are self-review.
Original practice extract, before: Their may be less buses, so residents could loose access to local services.
A context-sensitive revision: There may be fewer buses, so residents could lose access to local services.
Their, less and loose are all English words. A dictionary-based spelling check can therefore accept them even though they do not fit this sentence. A clean spelling result does not establish accurate grammar or meaning.
There introduces the possible existence of fewer buses; their would indicate possession and needs an appropriate noun. Fewer compares a count of buses, while less fits an uncountable amount, as in less traffic. Lose means no longer have something; loose usually describes something that is not firmly fixed in this context.
The revision keeps may and could: it corrects the language without turning a possible consequence into a guaranteed result. You still need to check whether this hypothetical claim answers the actual question and is developed with relevant reasoning.
Revise this sentence without making the claim stronger: Working at home can have a positive affect on employees because they spend less time travelling.
Working at home can have a positive effect on employees because they spend less time travelling. Here effect is the noun meaning a result or influence. The usual verb affect means influence, as in Commuting can affect free time. Keep can: the spelling-and-meaning repair does not prove that every employee benefits.
In your own draft, check the job and meaning of each doubtful word after reviewing task coverage and organisation. Accept a tool suggestion only if it preserves the intended claim. The on-device spelling check does not assess grammar, meaning, task coverage or an IELTS band.
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Write a three-step practice plan for someone whose paragraphs contain several claims but little explanation. Include a small exercise, a check and a later full-task practice.
These answers explain the prepared multiple-choice checks. The writing examples are possible responses, not the only correct versions. Seeing an answer supports practice; it does not establish independent mastery.
A position does not replace coverage of the other requested view. Explain both and make your own judgement clear.
A rural setting raises relevant constraints such as distance and service frequency. A city-only answer may miss the task.
A template can organise your thinking, but its content and structure must fit the actual question.
Car-free centres can inconvenience people who cannot easily walk from a bus stop. Nevertheless, the reduction in through traffic is a greater benefit if towns provide accessible transport and delivery arrangements.
The second option explains the mechanism. Repetition and a conclusion marker do not add development.
However expresses contrast. Choose it for the relationship between ideas, not as decoration.
A relevant hypothetical example can explain your reasoning without a false research claim.
Community gardens create repeated opportunities for neighbours to work together. When two residents share responsibility for watering a bed, they need to discuss a routine and solve small problems. These regular conversations can build familiarity beyond a brief greeting in the street.
Subtracting the shares gives 10 percentage points. The relative increase is 50%, and population totals are unknown.
A snapshot supports comparisons, not an unshown history or an explanation of causes.
An overview selects the important picture; detailed values can support it in the body.
Cars account for the largest share in Alder, whereas buses are the leading mode in Birch. Cycling has the same share in both towns and is less common than either of the other two modes.
A loop needs a shown return connection; the subject and number of steps alone do not establish one.
A label change supports a change of use. Construction methods and dates need separate evidence.
The passive can keep attention on the material when the operator is unimportant or unspecified. Active sentences can also be appropriate.
Collected paper is first sorted and then mixed with water. The mixture is subsequently dried to produce sheets.
The recipient and reason for writing guide the tone, from friendly conversation to a formal request.
The third sentence names the requested remedy. The others leave the recipient guessing.
Each point needs meaningful coverage in connected writing, not omission or a copied checklist.
I am writing because a change to my work schedule prevents me from attending next week's class. Could you let me know whether I could join another session covering the same material?
When benefit is the verb here, from introduces the source of the advantage.
Accuracy and meaning matter. An unfamiliar replacement can introduce a new error or change the claim.
Controlled repetition can maintain clarity. Variety is useful only when readers can still follow the reference.
More frequent buses may make commuting easier for residents who do not have access to a car.
The subject head is the singular noun number; of workers is a modifying phrase.
The although clause is connected to the main clause some routes are infrequent.
But appropriately connects two independent clauses in a contrast. A comma alone does not do that job.
Although cycling is inexpensive, some journeys are too long. Although online meetings save travel time, face-to-face training can help new employees.
Official IELTS guidance gives Task 2 twice the weight of Task 1. Practise enough time for both.
A small sentence-pattern exercise has a clear action and can be checked before a later full response.
AI can be wrong. Compare the suggestion with the exact original and the task, especially for visual facts.
First, develop one claim in three sentences by adding a mechanism and an example. Next, check whether both supporting sentences explain that claim. Finally, write a timed essay and use the same check on each body paragraph.