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This is our second interview with an IELTS writing examiner.  The first one can be found here

https://upmyielts.com/an-interview-with-an-ielts-writing-examiner/

We asked members in our private Facebook group IELTS writing and speaking support (Feel free to join) for questions and these are the questions that we got.  A lot of them were similar to the previous interview, but a lot were new.

If you have any more questions, you can post them in the comments here and we will answer them for you.

1. What mistakes do you see the most?
2. My exam is really soon, do you recommend practicing for a limited amount of time according to the exam time or no time limit to improve the quality of writing?
3. Why is it so difficult to get Band 7.0 in writing?
4. Why do so many people struggle with IELTS writing?
5. Do you teach IELTS even though you are an examiner?
6. Do you think IELTS writing is a fair assessment of your writing skills?
7. I think examiners mark too harshly these days so that the score does not always reflect their true abilities in writing. What are your comments on this?
8. I just want to ask about how to achieve an 8+ in both Writing Task 1 and Writing Task 2. And what is the difference between a band 6.5 (or 7) and 8 in Writing Task 1. Do we have to mention all the categories even there are a lot of categories?
9. What is the meaning of logical organization in Writing Task 1?
10. What advice would you give to someone trying to get Band 7+ in writing?
11. In Task 2, how can I support my ideas?
12. I have read all the articles on upmyielts.com (thank you team). Sometimes I find information on different websites that is different to yours.  Why is this? 
13. In Task 1 we can only choose one tense, right? So in the beginning, “These two bar charts showed…” is better than “These two bar charts show…”?
14. In Task 2, unlike the Task 1, we are recommended to use a variety of tenses, right? For example, we can write examples in the past tense and other sentences in the present tense in Task 2.
15. I have been told that I need to balance my writing? What does this mean?
16. Are you really an IELTS examiner?

Here we go.  I hope you have a cup of tea ready!

1  What mistakes do you see the most?

Being an IELTs examiner can be quite infuriating.  I see a lot of people make very simple mistakes, like not being able to use articles in English.  But after Grammar, Task Achievement is probably the most common part of the criteria that I see a lot of mistakes.  For example, there are Band 6 cut off points and this is where people get stuck a lot.

Task 1 Ac – if you don’t present enough data, you can’t get passed Band 6.0 for Task Achievement

Task 1 Gen – If you only develop 2 out of the 3 bullet points, you can’t get passed Band 6.0 for Task Achievement

Task 2 – If you don’t support your ideas with examples, it is very hard to get passed Band 6.0 for Task Achievement

2  My exam is really soon, do you recommend practicing for a limited amount of time according to the exam time or no time limit to improve the quality of writing?  

Work to the timing of the exam.  There is no point giving yourself an hour when you will only have 40 minutes to do Task 2.  If your exam is close, start working towards the IELTS times.  If you have more time (more than a month, say), just work on completing the tasks.  IELTS writing questions are nearly always the same.  They ask what you think about something.  Once you get used to writing about your opinions, you will be able to write much faster.

3  Why is it so difficult to get Band 7.0 in writing?

Well, I mentioned a few Task Achievement problems in the question before.  The other main problem I see in candidates’ writing is accuracy.   If you have prepared properly with a teacher that knows what they are talking about, Task Achievement and Coherence are not really a problem.  These are the easiest part to get higher marks in (Band 7+).  However, and this is where people have problems, it is accuracy that stops people Band 7 overall because their word choice is either inaccurate or they make a lot of grammatical mistakes.  For example, I see a lot of people from India (Sorry India!) that use really complex vocabulary but they can’t use the articles a/an/the.  Articles occur in English so frequently that this means that nearly every one of their sentences is grammatically wrong.  So even if you get 7 in the other criteria and 6 in Grammar, you are awarded 6.5 overall.

Is it fair?  Not really, but it’s errors that stop people getting into Band 7.0.  A lot of people have no idea that they are making these errors as they self-study.  This is a huge mistake.

4  Why do so many people struggle with IELTS writing?

There are a number of reasons in my experience.

1)  Teachers don’t teach writing.  Students want to speak, play games, have fun etc.  They don’t want to go to class and study writing.  This means that teachers avoid it.  When it comes to English exams (B1, B2, C1, C2, IELTS, TOEFL etc), writing is your weakest skill.

2)  People try to self-study.  I study Spanish and I would never write an essay in Spanish without it being checked, especially if I were going to do an exam.  How would I know what I have written is correct or not?

3)  A lot of teachers have no idea what you need to do in IELTS.  The teachers may be native speakers, or not.  If you need to write an IELTS essay, you need to do certain things and only an IELTS examiner who has been trained to apply the criteria can tell you what you will get in the exam.

5  Do you teach IELTS even though you are an examiner?

Yes, I do.  IELTS doesn’t want me to teach.  It gives my students an unfair advantage.  I also cannot tell my students I am an examiner.  This is why I work through upmyielts.  I have heard so many stories of people not being able to get into university or get a visa just because of IELTS.  So, I teach how to do it here, anonymously.

6  Do you think IELTS writing is a fair assessment of your writing skills?

To an extent, yes.  The level of writing expected is of someone that has completed school and is 18 years old or over.  People think that it is an academic exam.  How wrong they are.  Students in the UK that want to go to university in Australia do IELTS.  They are 18 and do very well.  You just need to have proper guidance and be able to write a discursive essay in Task 2, and describe data clearly in Task 1.  I see a lot on social media about how you need to use academic vocabulary and paraphrase and never use ‘very’ etc.  It’s all nonsense and shows you how little teachers know about IELTS.

7  I think examiners mark too harshly these days so that the score does not always reflect their true abilities in writing. What are your comments on this?

We are trained regularly, retrained, and then monitored by senior examiners.  If anything, I think people are little lenient (The opposite of strict).  If you live in Thailand, for example, and you teach Thais, you may read something and understand it because you live in that country.  This is true for the speaking exam too.  However, if an examiner from a different country reads the same writing, they may give it a lower score as they don’t have the cultural connection.

You say “these days”.  Nothing has changed in IELTS for a very long time (The pay too!).  It has always been this way.  Maybe it is because more people want to live abroad these days that we see more people not getting what they need in IELTS writing.

8  I just want to ask about how to achieve an 8+ in both Writing Task 1 and Writing Task 2. And what is the difference between a band 6.5 (or 7) and 8 in Writing Task 1. Do we have to mention all the categories even there are a lot of categories?

Ok.  So, firstly, Band 8 writing is native-like.  It is clear, accurate and there are very few errors.  Band 6.5 writing has a lot of mistakes.  Simple grammar will not be controlled well (articles?) and most sentences will contain an error or two.  However, the reader will be able to understand what is written.  If it is difficult to understand what is written, 5.5 and lower is awarded.

In Task 1, you must mention all the categories.  If you omit one, your Task achievement score will be capped at Band 4 and you will struggle to get a high score.

9  What is the meaning of logical organization in Writing Task 1?

In the Academic exam. You need to write 3 paragraphs.

Paragraph 1 – Introduce the data and add your overview

DIVIDE THE DATA INTO 2 PARTS

Paragraph 2 – Describe the first part of the data.

Paragraph 3 – Describe the second part of the data.

This is logical and clear.  If you look at your writing and there are sentences on their own, or parts much longer than others, then you know you have done something wrong.

The same goes for the General exam.  The bullet points are in logical order so it is logical (that word again) to follow that order.

Also, if the data is in chronological order and you decide to jump forwards and backwards in time in your description, this is illogical organization.

10 What advice would you give to someone trying to get Band 7+ in writing?

Give me an example of your writing and I will tell you whether you are there or not.  I will then show you what you need to work on to get there.  This is the only advice that works.  The blog here is good and accurate; I and other examiners here write short blog posts, but everyone is different.  You need real help that is tailored to your needs, as your needs will be different from someone else.  Get your writing assessed here and then go from there.

11 In Task 2, how can I support my ideas? 

You need 2 ideas in Task 2; one in each body paragraph.  introduce your idea, extend it, then add a real-life (or invented) example to support it.  It is very simple.  You don’t have to do anything more than this. These two articles should help you

https://upmyielts.com/i-cant-think-of-ideas-for-ielts-task-2/

https://upmyielts.com/can-i-invent-supporting-examples-in-ielts-task-2/

12  I have read all the articles on upmyielts.com (thank you team).  Sometimes I find information on different websites that is different to yours.  Why is this? 

Because they are written by people that know absolutely nothing about the exam.  They aren’t examiners.  They say they are IELTS teachers but they have no idea what they need to do in the exam.  If you aren’t sure about something, then send us a message and we will investigate.  We get a lot of people messaging us saying “My teacher said (insert idea).  Is it correct?”.  Most of the time the teacher is wrong.

It is infuriating.  As I said before, I see a lot of “Don’t say ‘very’” posts on Insta and it is all nonsense.  Native speakers do the exam and get Band 9.0.  They say ‘very’ all the time!  IELTS is not a test of your thesaurus knowledge.  It’s an English test.  Could you go to the pub with the examiner and have a chat without annoying the examiner because of your English level?  Then you are probably Band 7+.

13  In Task 1 we can only choose one tense, right? So in the beginning, “These two bar charts showed…” is better than “These two bar charts show…”? 

If the data is set in the past, whichever is fine but don’t mix the present and past as this is just confusing.  If the data is from 2010, then use the past as it is more logical, but you don’t have to.  The present is fine too.

14 In Task 2, unlike the Task 1, we are recommended to use a variety of tenses, right? For example, we can write examples in the past tense and other sentences in the present tense in Task 2.

Yes, and your two body paragraphs are where you do this.  Introduce your idea and extend it in the present tense.  Then move into the past (or future) and use a real-life example.

15 I have been told that I need to balance my writing?  What does this mean?

If one body paragraph is longer than the other then it means that you are not balancing your essay and focusing on one part more than the other.  A lot of candidates present a long first body paragraph and shorter second body paragraph because they are running out of time/ideas.  This really affects their Task Achievement score.

16 Are you really an IELTS examiner?

Ha, yes.  I know it’s difficult to trust anyone these days, especially online.  I, personally have been examining for about 17 years in 3 different countries.  I currently examine in London.  I know the other examiners at upmyielts as I have either worked with them, examined with them, or met them on Zoom/Teams.  I don’t know any other team that is as good as this one when it comes to IELTS.  We aren’t a free service, but for the service we provide, we are certainly one of the best, if not the best.  You can ask us any question you like about the exam, read the reviews from people that have used the service, and we have received hundreds of emails from people who we have helped; we just don’t publish them.  We get lots of success stories, and you could be next.

Get your writing assessed by us first and see what you think of the feedback.  Then you can tell us whether you think we are real IELTS examiners.