English FundamentalsNorthbound Education
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Foundations

The verb system

Describing and connecting

Words and sounds

Practice and progress

16Practice

Your plan and your progress

One hour a day, six days a week. Sunday is revision only. No new material.

Six weeks, page by page

Week 1

Foundations

Part A in full. Ten sentences a day in Subject + Verb + Object order. Vocabulary words 1 to 10.

Week 2

The present

Section 05, the four present tenses. Describe your daily routine aloud every morning. Words 11 to 20.

Week 3

The past and the verb forms

The four past tenses, then section 06. Fifteen irregular verbs a day. Tell the story of your yesterday, out loud. Words 21 to 30.

Week 4

The future, questions and modals

The four future tenses, then sections 07 and 08. Ask and answer ten questions a day with a partner. Words 31 to 40.

Week 5

Describing and connecting

Part C. Take ten short sentences from week 1 and join them into five longer ones. Words 41 to 50.

Week 6

Range and polish

Sections 12 to 15 and the twenty advanced words. Write one 250-word opinion paragraph a day and mark your own tense errors.

Keep an error notebook

Do not erase a mistake. Copy this four-line format into a notebook and fill it in every time a teacher corrects you. Read the notebook once a week. A mistake you have written down three times stops being a mistake.

The four lines of an error notebook entry
LineExample
What I wroteShe go to college and she don't like the maths.
What is correctShe goes to college and she doesn't like maths.
The rule, in my own wordsHe / she / it adds s in the present simple, and takes doesn't, not don't. No the before a subject in general.
Where it is in the bookSection 01, rule 3 and Section 02, articles.

Your progress list

Tick a line only when you can do it without looking anything up. The number on the right is the section to go back to.

When you have ticked every line you have the grammar an IELTS candidate is expected to control. What remains is not grammar: it is exam technique, timing and listening practice, and that is where your teacher takes over.