Can we use contractions in IELTS writing?
This is a question we received last week and we have seen it time and time again. It comes from the idea that IELTS, especially Academic IELTS, is a formal exam and should be treated us such. This is wrong. Academic IELTS is a test of your English for academic purposes (this means for university, post grad courses and also jobs). It is NOT a test of your academic English. If you go to an English school/academy to study English, the...
What does an IELTS Band 9 Task 2 look like?
We thought that we would share an example of a Band 9 Task 2 essay along with the rationale as to what it is high scoring. It was written by one of the IELTS examiners that works with us. In red, you can see why it is getting high Task Achievement scores. The range of grammar and vocabulary is very wide and accuracy is very high. Coherence is so smooth that it is not noticed. Have a read...... Now, of course, for...
What happens if I write less than 250 words in IELTS Task 2?
The answer to this may surprise you and one of the IELTS examiners that works with us has this to say. The short answer is nothing. If you write 200 words, you are not penalised. If you write 100 words, you are not penalised. Until a few years ago, candidates lost Task Achievement marks for writing answers that were too short. For example, if you wrote 240 words, your Task Achievement had 1 Band deducted from it. It was a huge...
How to write an IELTS Task 2
One of the IELTS writing examiners that works with us wrote this piece ion how to write an IELTS Task 2 There are a number of ways to write a Task 2 but this is by far the easiest if you are aiming for Band 7.0+ 1. Structure. Only write 4 paragraphs. An introduction, 2 body paragraphs of equal length and a conclusion. Your writing should look like 2. Understand what the question is asking you to do. If the question says Do...
A question from a blog reader “I’ve done IELTS 3 times in the last 3 months and get (nearly) the same score every time (Not high enough). What is going on?”
One of the the IELTS examiners that works with us answered this one. You need to look at IELTS in a different way. IELTS is a level test. This means that is gives you an accurate reading of your writing, speaking, reading and listening. If you do a test like this in June, then again in July, you will find no difference as your level will not change that much in a month. Therefore, your score will be exactly the same. ...
Why do so many people get Band 6.5 in writing?
This is a very common problem for a lot of people and one of the IELTS examiners that works with us has this answer for you. Well, if you get 6.5 in Task 2 writing then it means you aren’t hitting Band 7 in all 4 criteria. What a lot of people don’t know is that if you get 7776, which is probably the most common score….. ……..you are awarded 6.5. IELTS writing rounds down. As you can see from the above...
What is fluency in IELTS speaking and why is it important?
One of the IELTS speaking examiners has shared this with us. Their article is about to be shared in a newspaper in Japan. Here is part of it. In the speaking exam, Fluency and Coherence is one of the criteria and a lot of candidates struggle with the fluency part. Students that get Band 6 can speak at length so, for example, in Part 2, they speak for the whole 2 minutes. However, what they will tend to do is one...
Why am I stuck at band 6 for IELTS writing?
This is a problem for an awful lot of people. The first thing you need to do is work out why you aren’t getting higher marks in your writing. In the 4 criteria, it may be just one of them that is stopping you from getting higher marks. It may be that you aren’t developing your ideas enough with examples (Task Achievement), it may be that you are making referencing mistakes or mistakes with linking words (Coherence & Cohesion) or it...