IELTS writing Task 2 – What are the examiners looking for?
This was a question from a member in our private IELTS Facebook group. You can join it here. It's free. One of the IELTS writing examiners that works here answered this one. The criteria (not the examiners) is looking for a number of things but here are probably the most important ones. Task Achievement Support for your ideas. If you just list ideas in your body paragraphs, you aren’t developing your ideas. Just add one idea to each body paragraph and support...
How to write a topic sentence in IELTS writing
This was a question from a member of our private Facebook group (Feel free to join. You can talk to IELTS examiners there) First, let's look at what a topic sentence is. A topic sentence is just the main idea of your body paragraph and is generally the first sentence. You only need 2 topic sentences as you only need to write 2 body paragraphs. Let’s look at an example question like “Learning a foreign language in primary school is more beneficial than in...
IELTS writing and body paragraphs
We receive questions about writing a body paragraph in IELTS and sometime we see candidates try to squeeze too much in them. A body paragraph is like a carriage on a train. This is a common question we get. "How many ideas should I include in a body paragraph in Task 2? Some say one is enough others say you should include 2 or 3 even if the question is in singular? Also please describe in details what a developed idea...
What does Band 9.0 writing look like in IELTS?
This is a good question and one we received from a member of our private Facebook group (Feel free to join and ask your questions about IELTS). Here is an example of a Band 9.0 Task 2. It is 293 words long so a bit long for what most people are able to produce. I don’t recommend writing more than this unless you are a very high user of English. Band 9.0 is just native or native-like level English that fully...
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...
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...
IELTS remarking. When to do it and when not to.
In IELTS, if you don’t think your writing or speaking result is accurate, you can ask for an EOR (Enquiry of Results). Your writing or speaking will then be checked by another examiner (in some cases a senior examiner but not always) to see whether your result is accurate or not. You have to pay for this and the fee differs depending on the country you did the test in. However, if your score is changed (up or down), you...
How do I improve my IELTS writing and speaking?
This is a question that we often get asked and it is an easy one to answer. One of the IELTS examiners at upmyielts explains. First things first, you need to find where you are at the moment. If you need Band 7.0 in speaking and writing, then you need to know what you would get if you did the exam tomorrow. It may be the case that your speaking is already at Band 7+ level but your writing is not. ...