SELT Preparation
5 Mistakes That Fail SELT Candidates — and How to Avoid Them
The patterns that repeat after 30+ years of preparing candidates for UK visa English tests.
June 2026 · 7 min read
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Expert advice from qualified English teachers — covering IELTS, SELT, Cambridge exams, Business English, and how to improve your English quickly.
Most IELTS candidates who get stuck at 6.0 or 6.5 in writing are making the same mistakes. After 12 years of teaching and four years as a working examiner, I've seen every pattern.
In this guide I'll walk through the five most common writing errors at Band 6, and the specific techniques that move students up to Band 7 in the shortest time.
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Read more →Most IELTS candidates use the same approach for every question type — and that's why they run out of time. Here's how to adapt.
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