The errors that hold capable speakers at 6.5 are predictable, and predictable from your first language.
Each page teaches one structure, shows you what it looks like at Band 6, 7 and 8, names the mistake your first language tends to make, and lets you drill it with instant feedback. Free, and nothing is sent anywhere.
Verb forms & tenses
Articles a, an, the · the zero article
Subject-verb agreement & plurals the third-person -s · tricky subjects (each, neither, a number of) · there is/are · countable & uncountable nouns
Tenses present simple · present continuous · past simple · past continuous · present perfect · present perfect continuous · past perfect
Future & perfect forms past perfect continuous · future continuous · future perfect · future perfect continuous
Passive voice present & past passive · perfect passive · continuous passive
Conditionals zero · first · second · third · mixed conditional
Modal verbs possibility · obligation & advice · deduction & speculation · modal + have + past participle
Gerunds & infinitives verb + -ing · verb + to · meaning-change pairs
Reported speech backshift · reported questions & commands · reporting verbs
Question formation yes/no questions · wh-questions · subject questions · question tags · indirect questions
Prepositions time · place · dependent prepositions · describing data
Sentences & clauses
Sentence structure simple · compound · complex · comma splice
Combining sentences coordination · subordination · relative & participle joins
Relative clauses defining · non-defining · who/which/that/whose/where · reduced (participle)
Adverbial clauses time · reason · concession & contrast · purpose · result
Emphasis & inversion inversion · it-cleft · what-cleft · fronting
Comparatives & superlatives comparative · superlative · degree modifiers
Vocabulary & cohesion
Linking words addition · contrast · cause & result · example · sequence
Referencing & substitution this/these/those · the former / the latter · one / ones · do so · ellipsis
Vocabulary & cohesion cohesive devices · band 6 to 8+ upgrades
Phrasal verbs separable · inseparable · formal equivalents
Lexical resource bank filter by function, topic, band, register
Education vocabulary collocations · topic upgrades
Environment vocabulary collocations · topic upgrades
Technology vocabulary collocations · topic upgrades
Health vocabulary collocations · topic upgrades
Work & business vocabulary collocations · topic upgrades
Crime & law vocabulary collocations · topic upgrades
Media & advertising vocabulary collocations · topic upgrades
Writing Task 1 language describing data · the language of change
Reference
IELTS by band the spine: a real answer climbing Band 6 to 8
Grammar by band the structures expected at each band, with examples
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The whole ladder in one place: what Band 6, 7 and 8 require across every skill, and a real answer dissected as it climbs from 6 to 8 with every added structure labelled. The integrated move, not isolated points. Start here, then drill the pieces.
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Start →Grammar: the forms
The ZONES system, the specific article error your first language predicts, and twenty drills across two exercise types with instant feedback.
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Start →Making the verb match its subject: the third-person -s, the nearest-noun trap, tricky subjects like each and neither, there is versus there are, and the uncountable nouns that never pluralise. Twenty drills across two exercise types.
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Start →The seven forms that matter, the boundary that caps Band 7, which tense each part of the test wants, and twenty drills across two exercise types.
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Start →The four forms that signal range: past perfect continuous, future continuous, future perfect and future perfect continuous, the time anchor each one needs, where to deploy them, and twenty drills across two exercise types.
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Start →Be + past participle across the tenses, the three reasons to use it, the register of Task 1 processes, when the active is clearer, and twenty drills across two exercise types.
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Start →Zero to mixed, the one error that caps Band 7, the Part 3 deployment map, and twenty drills across two exercise types.
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Start →The certainty ladder, obligation and advice, hedging a claim, the modal + have + past form, and twenty drills across two exercise types.
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Start →Backshift and the shifts that come with it, reported questions and commands, the still-true exception, and the reporting verbs that beat said, the lexical lift for citing views in Task 2. Twenty drills across two exercise types.
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Start →Yes/no and wh-questions, subject questions, question tags, and the indirect-question word order that catches strong speakers, with twenty drills across two exercise types.
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Start →Which verbs take -ing, which take to, the gerund-after-preposition rule, the meaning-change pairs, and twenty drills across two exercise types.
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Start →Time and place (at, on, in), the dependent prepositions that cap a band (depend on, interested in, responsible for), the data prepositions for Task 1, and twenty drills across two exercise types.
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Start →Grammar: building sentences
Simple, compound and complex sentences, the clauses and joins that build them, the comma-splice error that caps accuracy, and twenty drills across two exercise types.
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Start →Defining vs non-defining clauses, who/which/that/whose/where, when to drop the pronoun, the comma rule, and twenty drills across two exercise types.
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Start →Time, reason, concession, purpose and result: the connectors that fold two ideas into one reasoned sentence, the comma rule, the comma-splice trap, and twenty drills across two exercise types.
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Start →The advanced word-order moves: inversion after a negative adverb, it-clefts and what-clefts, and fronting for effect, used sparingly and accurately, with twenty drills across two exercise types.
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Start →The forms, the degree modifiers that say how big a gap is, the errors that mark you down, and twenty drills across two exercise types. Pairs with Task 1.
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Start →Vocabulary & topics
A vocabulary bank you can slice four ways, by function, topic, band and register. Filter live, see the basic-to-Band-8 upgrades, and drill the choices. The most-asked-for resource, built properly.
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Start →The same idea from Band 6 to 8+, the cohesive-device chart by function, linking with the right clause, and twenty drills across two exercise types.
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Start →The three kinds of linker, choosing one by function, punctuating however and therefore, the overuse trap that caps Coherence and Cohesion, and twenty drills across two exercise types.
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Start →The other half of cohesion: this, these, the former, the latter, one, do so and ellipsis, the devices that point back without repeating, and the unclear-reference trap. Twenty drills across two exercise types.
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Start →The natural idiom that lifts Speaking into Band 7+: what a phrasal verb is, separable vs inseparable word order, the formal equivalents for writing, and twenty drills across two exercise types.
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Start →The collocations that lift a common topic, the basic-to-Band-8 upgrades, and ten drills. The first of the topic-vocabulary banks.
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Start →The collocations for one of the most common IELTS topics, climate, pollution, conservation and policy, the basic-to-Band-8 upgrades, and ten drills.
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Start →The collocations for another of the most common IELTS topics, devices, digital life, automation and AI, and the risks, the basic-to-Band-8 upgrades, and ten drills.
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Start →The collocations for one of the most common IELTS topics, diet, exercise, illness and healthcare, the basic-to-Band-8 upgrades, and ten drills.
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Start →The collocations for one of the most common IELTS topics, jobs, careers, the workplace and business, the basic-to-Band-8 upgrades, and ten drills.
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Start →The collocations for a frequent Task 2 topic, offenders, policing, sentencing and reform, the basic-to-Band-8 upgrades, and ten drills.
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Start →The collocations for a frequent IELTS topic, news, advertising, social media and misinformation, the basic-to-Band-8 upgrades, and ten drills.
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Start →The language of change for Academic Writing Task 1, rise sharply, level off, fluctuate, overtake, the basic-to-Band-8 upgrades, and twenty drills across two exercise types.
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Start →Reference
The structures examiners expect at Band 6, 7 and 8+, each with one clear example, and how to use them naturally.
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Start →Every grammar and vocabulary drill on the site, 1,048 questions, behind one adaptive round of ten: answer well and the questions climb the band ladder, struggle and they step back down. Progress stays in your browser, and every wrong answer explains itself.
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Start →The interactive sister page to sentence structure: the four moves that fuse flat clauses into one controlled complex sentence, one idea climbing Band 5 to 8, the three traps, and twenty to combine across two exercise types. The Band 6-to-7 lift, drilled.
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Start →Bring an adverbial, object, participle, adjective or negative phrase to the front of a sentence and see exactly how it changes, including when fronting forces the subject and verb to invert. One of the strongest Band 7 to 8 moves, and the most underused.
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Start →Every page here is live and self-marking. More grammar points and topic-vocabulary banks are on the way, drawn from the grammar chapters of the forthcoming book. Want a person to find the one error holding your band down? That's what the lessons are for.