Common mistakes at IELTS Intermediate…

and how to avoid them

Pauline Cullen
Cambridge University Press 2007

Reviewed by Sasha Wajnryb

Common mistakes at IELTS Intermediate…and how to avoid them is one of the most
recent additions to the IELTS shelf at your local ELT bookshop. Written by Pauline
Cullen and published by Cambridge University Press, it’s a valuable resource.
As the number of students sitting the IELTS exam increases, the demand for new
IELTS-focussed materials continues to grow. Newer materials, designed to supplement
traditional materials such as course books and practice tests, are entering the market.
However, at only 64 pages and in A5 size, there is no mistaking ‘Common mistakes’
for anything other than a supporting player.
The book contains 30 mainly grammatically focused units. Each unit takes up one
A5 page. The explanation of the grammar makes up two thirds of each page. This is
followed by a small cartoon question, then eight sentence – completion/modification
activities. A two page test follows every group of three units.
There’s not much that’s new with this ‘grammar explanation + questions’ format.
Murphy’s Essential Grammar in Use has done it before, as has Swan and Walter’s How
English Works. Judging from the wear and tear on our college’s copies of these books,
this format is very popular. With this book, it’s understood that the teacher has seen
this type of material before – so much so that there’s no foreword or instructions for
the teacher. However this book claims to be designed for IELTS students. It asks ‘How
can you avoid the most common mistakes students make at IELTS Intermediate?’
and states it will explain ‘how to make sure you get it right’ (back cover). Does it
achieve this aim?
This book is aimed at the Intermediate level student who often has many holes in
his/her grammar. Anyone who has taught IELTS has encountered Intermediate level
students who need to score 6.5 as quickly as possible. It’s a tough ask, particularly to
achieve both grammatical range and accuracy. For a book like this to be relevant, the
key will be the grammar points it chooses to address.

64 EA Journal Volume 24 No 1
Fortunately the majority of the content areas have been chosen carefully. Useful
areas include relative pronouns, ‘-ing or infinitive’ structures, register and adjectives/
adverbs.
Yet, I don’t think choosing IELTS topic areas is enough as ‘IELTS English’ often
involves formulaic genres with particular structures. Cullen has realized this, and has
often incorporated IELTS-style writing tasks in her grammatical tasks. The Test that
reviews the section on passives wisely mimics an Academic Task 1 procedure
‘First a tree is chosen and then the bark is stripped off in one piece’ (p 39). Articles
are reviewed with a typical topic sentence from an IELTS Academic Task 2 essay: ‘The
[sic] Globalisation has had an enormous impact on many parts of the world’ (p. 9).
The task for ‘-ing or infinitive structure’ resembles a General Training Task 1 Letter:
‘I look forward to hearing your reply’ (p. 21).
So how could these materials be used? Well, the book is clearly designed to supplement
other materials. Though some students will undoubtedly buy the book and work
through the chapters methodically (as they do with Murphy), these materials would
be best used as optional extras. Picking and choosing units when appropriate seems
to be the teacher’s likely course of action. It may be worth matching the units with
the grammatical points tackled in the teacher’s primary materials. The materials could
also be given as homework.
The review tests that follow each set of three units are unusual. While useful for the
aforementioned student who meticulously works through all the units, it’s doubtful
that a teacher would use the book in the same way. A test that reviews three different
grammatical units wouldn’t be particularly relevant, particularly as some of the unit
groups could have been ordered differently in the classroom. Why group adjective/
adverb, adverb, noun and adjective and Verb Confusion 1 in one group, then Verb
Confusion 2, Verb Confusion 3 and Noun Confusion 1 in the next group? Rather
than tests, I would have preferred to see the extra pages used for longer (perhaps two
page) units. However, this is a relatively minor complaint!
Overall, it is well worth investing in Common mistakes as a useful supplement to
your existing IELTS course. Our college has two levels of IELTS, and this resource
will be a worthwhile addition to the materials used for students in the lower of the
two classes.

Sasha Wajnryb is Director of Studies at Greenwich College, Sydney.

EA Journal Volume 24 No 1 65