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Major topic group in IELTS-People

I have noticed that over the last two years in teaching IELTS classes that most of the students have difficulty in making the relationships between common subjects with a Major Topic Group (MTG). An MTG is a group of similar associated topics that are commonly asked on the IELTS exam. Some frequently asked exam question may be

Describe your neighbor.
Describe a family member.
Describe your favorite teacher.

Most students fail to recognize that the above questions have a common Topic Group. “People” The student will try to focus on the specific individual they are describing. But in most cases the answer will become vague and unclear.

I believe the best solution to this problem is identity as many questions that are related to a MTG. An example would be all the questions that are related to “people”. Then with this mind, focus on how to give a generic description of a person and then fill in the specific idiosyncrasies for that individual.

It is my belief the all “people” questions can be answered with some very basic categories of answers. After the student is familiar with these categories they can in fact describe anyone. This is fairly simple and straight forward. I believe we can identify two major categories that we can use when describing a person.
Physical attributes: short, tall, fat, long hair, glasses etc

Personality traits: happy, hot tempered, even tempered, sad etc.

With both of these in mind and certainly not forgetting the 5W’s. Who, What, When, Where & Why. We can fully describe any one.

So let’s describe your best friend:
Name: Who they are
We have been friends sinceXXXX: When
We first met in middle school: Where and When
Let me describe them. They are..short, fat, tall, old etc. Also they have a great personality, they are always..happy, sad, angry….
I enjoy being with them and we talk to each other on a daily basis. What
We often go…….. : How often?
The reason that we are best friends is…:Why
I think the best time we ever had was….
I think the worse time we ever had was….
We have many things in common such as….
We have many friends in common such as….

So by using some simple ideas and a bit of common sense the student can describe most anyone.