IELTS Project - Bà Rịa

Day 3- HOW?

HOW TO DO SPEEDY NOTE-TAKING (Listening)!

Abbreviations
People are often unsure about how to write abbreviations. The main areas of uncertainty are:
whether to write abbreviations with capital letters
whether to use full stops
when to use apostrophes.

Here’s a quick-reference guide to help you get it right.
There are several kinds of abbreviation: the way an abbreviation is written usually depends on the category to which it belongs.

1. Acronyms
Acronyms are words formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as they are spelled, not as separate letters. Examples include:
acronym and full form
Aids- acquired immune deficiency syndrome
NATO- North Atlantic Treaty Organization
UNESCO- United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
SIM (card)- subscriber identification module
Most acronyms can be written as capital letters or with only an initial capital letter.
Some acronyms are so established that they are now ‘normal’ words, generally used without conscious awareness of their original full form. These words should be written in lower-case letters. Examples include:
laser- light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation
radar- radio detection and ranging
quango- quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization
scuba- self-contained underwater breathing apparatus

2. Contractions
Contractions are a type of abbreviation in which letters from the middle of the word are omitted. Examples include:
contraction and full form
Dr- Doctor
St- Saint
Ltd- Limited
Revd- Reverend
A contraction can also be an abbreviated form of more than one word, for example:
contraction and full form
I’ll- I will/I shall
we’ve- we have
shouldn’t- should not
You do not need to use a full stop at the end of contractions, because the last letter of the original word is still present.
In contractions that represent more than one word, the letters that have been omitted should be replaced with an apostrophe.

3. Initialisms
Initialisms are abbreviations which consist of the initial (i.e. first) letters of words and which are pronounced as separate letters when they are spoken. Examples include:
initialism and full form
BBC- British Broadcasting Corporation
MP- Member of Parliament
UN- United Nations
TUC- Trades Union Congress
UK- United Kingdom
CD- compact disc
You do not need to put full stops after the letters in an initialism. Sometimes, especially in American English, certain initialisms may include full stops if that is the preferred style of a particular writer or publisher. For example, the forms US and U.S. are both acceptable, as long as one or the other is used consistently within a piece of writing.
When you are forming the plural of an initialism, you do not need to use an apostrophe, for example:
MPs- e.g. MPs voted against the bill.
CDs- e.g. I bought some new CDs today.
Note that the possessive form of initialisms is formed in the usual way, with an apostrophe + s:
an MP’s salary- (i.e. the salary of an MP)
a report on MPs’ expenses- (i.e. the expenses of MPs)
the CD’s subtitle- (i.e. the subtitle of the CD)

4. Shortenings
Shortenings are abbreviations in which the beginning or end of the word has been dropped. In some cases both the beginning and the end have been omitted. Examples include:
shortening and original form
cello- violoncello
flu- influenza
ad- advertisement
blog- weblog
rhino- rhinoceros
telly- television
bike- bicycle
In some cases, the shortening involves a slight spelling change, as with bike and telly.
These shortenings are now an accepted part of the language. In fact some of the original, longer forms tend to be used only in formal or technical writing. It would sound rather odd, for example, to describe a person as suffering from influenza unless you were writing in a scientific context.
You do not need to use an apostrophe in shortenings to show that letters have been omitted.
You should only use a capital letter if the original form also starts with a capital letter, for example:
Med- Mediterranean
Brit- British (person)
Jag- Jaguar
You do not need to use a full stop unless the shortening is one created specifically for use in writing, for example:
Dec.- December
Tue.- Tuesday
etc.- et cetera

Day 5- TIPS!

When it comes to getting a high band score in the IELTS Reading, every candidate assumes that time management and vocabulary are of utmost importance.

But, do you know how useful it is to know to identify the keywords?

What are Keywords in IELTS Reading?
are the words that carry specific information.

These words will help a reader/candidate identify the context of the passage. In return, it helps find the correct answer.

Day 4- TIPS!

TIPS for answering this Cue Card question:

Pick a website which is popular and you often visit. If you prefer to talk about a website which is not known to all, mention that this is not a very popular website but I visit it for this particular reason. You can pick a social networking website, email service providing website, news channel website, your university or office website, a website you have developed and visit for updating it, Wikipedia type website etc. If you pick a website which is popular, do not give any fictitious information. Giving false information about a well-known website like Google, Yahoo or Facebook would create some doubts in the examiner's mind as s/he might also be a user of this website.

Do not worry if you do not know every detail of the website even if the question asks you to describe it. If you do not know the owner name, operation since, technical aspects of the website, simply skip those parts instead of giving imaginary information. You can focus on what the website offers to the visitors and what you do from this website. For instance:

Social Networking websites:
Most of my friends are also connected in this website/ social network and I get their updates.
I can publish my updates and let my friends know about it.
It helps me finding my old friends/ family members.
It offers me to use third party applications and play games.
I can share my images and videos.
Help me find out information related to my education/ job.
Chat with my friends.

Email Service providers:
I send emails from this website.
I check the emails sent to me.
I can send attachments.
Has a good spam filtering and threat detection service.

Wikipedia like website:
Helps me finding reliable and details information on various topics.
Loads faster and has a subscription option.
I can contribute on updating the information.
Most of the topics are covered and you can get almost all of the information you need.

News websites:
Provides updated and latest news.
Both local and international news are served.
Has email notification service on my selective topics.
Gives sports news and events.
Offers interesting supplementary and magazines as well.
News presentation is outstanding and sources are very reliable.
Covers last minute news as well.