Choosing between IELTS and TOEFL, then the skills a reading paper marks — main idea, fact and opinion, comparing texts, charts, argument and tone — plus the grammar exams reward.
Exam English rewards things ordinary English does not: fixed formats, timed reading, and a precision that is graded rather than merely appreciated. This bundle opens with the choice most candidates make badly — IELTS or TOEFL, which differ less in difficulty than in shape — and then works through what a reading paper is really testing, question type by question type: finding the main idea under time pressure, separating fact from opinion, holding two texts side by side, reading a chart, following an argument, hearing where the writer stands. The last four articles cover the language the writing and speaking papers reward: abstract subjects like the environment, the passive, and the kind of polish that separates a good band from a very good one.
13 lessons