What templates can I use in IELTS writing?
Is there any template for the IELTS academic task 1 that can literally work for any given question? IELTS templates.........do they exist? An IELTS examiners answers your question No. The tasks are too varied. How could you use a template to describe a bar chart and a process? There are certain phrases that I suppose you could use for your introduction if you were faced with bar chart to describe like “The given bar charts show + add your description here” “From an overall...
How many words should you write in Task 1?
This is a good question and we get this one a lot. IELTS deems 150 the minimum number of words that you need to write to be able to fulfil the Task i.e. get Band 9.0. Aim for 150 to 180 words. If you write more than that then you may run out of time for Task 2. Remember, and this is key for IELTS writing, the more you write, the more time you will have to spend checking your writing. ...
10 reasons why IELTS writing is so hard
There are a number of reasons why IELTS writing is where most people struggle. The IELTS examiners that work with us came up with these 10 reasons. People don’t write very much anymore so it is skill we are losing. Teachers avoid teaching writing and set it for homework. They think they should focus on speaking in class and so writing gets neglected. This happens pretty much from school age. Students don’t think they need to practice it. They are...
How to write an overview in Academic Task 1
The overview is an important part of Task 1. It is in the Task Achievement criteria and it can be difficult to know what it actually means. One of the examiners that works with us explains what an overview is and how to identify it. An overview is basically the main trends you see in data; the key standout features. In the Academic Task 1, there are nearly always two. It is clearer if we look at some examples so you...
How to write an Academic IELTS Task 1
This is arguably the most difficult part of the Academic exam and it is also where a lot of candidates lose marks. They lose marks because they miss a few key things. 1) The overview. The overview is where you highlight the TWO main features of the data that you are presented with. There are always two. The overview is also in the marking criteria and if you don’t include one, you are capping your Task Achievement score at Band 5. ...
An interview with an IELTS writing examiner.
We received over 50 questions from people for this interview. A lot of people asked similar things so we tried to put them together to cover everything. Most came from our private group on Facebook “IELTS writing and speaking support”. Feel free to join. The list of questions What do you think is the biggest challenge for IELTS candidates in writing? Why do so many people get 6 or 6.5 in writing? Why are there so many IELTS teachers stating different...