Level B2 (approx. band 5.5-6.5) · Academic and General Training Articles are a, an and the. In a 250-word essay you may use more than thirty of them, so every error pattern repeats. Typical band 5 and 6 sentences: "The education is important for the society" or "Government should build more hospital." Episode 9 gave you the basics. In this episode: • The two big questions • Zero article for general ideas • The for unique and ranked things • Institutions and groups of people • An essay checklist • Model • Language bridge • Practice • Self-check questions with answers Key points: • Ask: general or specific? Then: singular countable? A singular countable noun never stands alone. • General abstract nouns take no article. Add the only when a phrase makes them specific. • Superlatives, ordinals, same, only, main, and unique things such as the environment all take the. • go to school for the purpose, the school for the building. The plus adjective means a whole group and takes a plural verb. • Five checks, three minutes, and many small errors disappear. IELTS Complete Course: a self-study podcast from A1 to C2 for Academic and General Training. Listen, pause and answer, then take the 52-question quiz. Audio voiced with AI from an original script by Dr. Rashmi R Nair. Independent course, not affiliated with the IELTS test owners.