Youtube Teachers are teaching you basic level IELTS writing skills ONLY.

When you watch a youtube video on IELTS, you might feel that you just learned something and ‘IELTS isn’t so hard’, and this calms you. It’s a trick to get your attention.

Oh, I know. They SAY they teach Band 9 IELTS but anyone can write those words.

How do you know if they are true or not?

Well, I’ve studied at the university of Cambrdge, and I can tell you that their teaching is basic. If you think you are getting high-level writing there, you are being fooled.

Let me show you what I mean.

Exposing poor IELTS advice on Youtube

How would you answer this?

Here’s how the school (E2) answered it.

Hopefully, you can see the difference, and it goes through EVERY major teacher on Youtube.

IELTS Liz:

Question: The best way to improve health is to do regular exercise. Agree/disagree?

Answer: “In my opinion, I agree that exercise is the key to health. However, I also believe that diet is important.”

1. Liz is saying the same thing twice. “In my opinion” and “I agree” are the same. Lesson: don’t waste words or repeat yourself!
2. Liz says “I agree” and then “however, I also disagree”. The problem is that this ‘two-sided’ answer does NOT respond fully to the question “Is exercise the key to health, or not?” That is what you have to answer. This is a common and major mistake. Lesson: Choose ONE side. “This essay will argue that exercise is not the key to health because ‘key’ implies that it’s the only major important element when in fact diet and mentality are just as important. (Now, we are going into band 7+ territory.)
3. By paraphrasing the question, the only thing this introduction does is says ‘I agree’. Lesson: give the background/context, just like you would at university. “Obesity is a major problem in Western countries, and there are three major reasons for this, a lack of exercise, a poor diet and a lazy mentality.”

Upgrade to Real Band 7+

1. 1. People tend to walk very little because of the need to travel long distance by car to access shopping and health care. This essay will argue that exercise is not ‘the key to health’ because the phrase suggests that there is only one major cause when in fact diet and steps taken per day are important.
   1. You can see the difference now. We are clear on the situation, what we think about it and why, and we’ve laid out the topics for the two paragraphs. (In the next section, we will look at how planning ties into this kind of writing to give you full confidence in your essay before you even write.)

IELTS Advantage

Question: Some children spend a long time on their mobile phones every day. Pos/neg development.

Answer: “Some juveniles spend a long time on their mobile phones.”

1. This should be super obvious to you now, the essay just repeats the question and adds nothing to any of the four band categories.
2. It’s a simple sentence. That’s not getting you grammar marks.
3. It doesn’t answer the question. We don’t know if the writer thinks this is a positive or negative development.

Upgrade to a real Band 7+

1. 1. Child obesity is becoming a global problem because mobile phones programmes are designed to hook children into dopamine loops. This essay will argue that using mobile phones excessively is a negative development because inactivity causes disease and dopamine exposure precludes (stops) deep critical thinking.Clear? Yup.
   1. When you are ready, the “Band 7 Introductions course” is free and ready to take your writing to university-levels.

And the scary truth, is that throughout the course, I’ll show you a similar level of mistakes all over their essays. That includes youtube AND their websites.

Then, I’ll show you the university-level writing you need.

Ready to upgrade your level?