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...
Why do we only use native IELTS examiners to evaluate your work?
upmyielts.com is where IELTS examiners work for you. So many people come to us having done IELTS numerous times and they haven’t got what they need in IELTS writing or speaking. Some of these people have even done IELTS courses with teachers in their countries or used other IELTS writing correction services. And here lies the problem. Unless you are an examiner, you will have no idea how to score your essays. We have had people come to us showing their...
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 is the best template for Academic IELTS Task 1?
Many people try to use templates for IELTS writing and, as this IELTS examiner explains, they are not a very good idea. But there is something else that will help you. There isn’t one and don’t use templates in IELTS, they just lead to more problems for candidates. What happens with candidates that use templates is….. they use their template and it doesn’t quite fit the question so their answer is weird. the language they have learnt to use is archaic...
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 can I prepare for the IELTS exam in 6 months?
One of the IELTS examiners that works with us and gives IELTS classes answers this question. 6 months is a sensible amount of time to prepare. Firstly though, you need to know where you are now so you know how much work you have in front of you. Get an IELTS practice book, and do the reading and listening tests. This will give you a very good idea of what your reading and listening scores are at the moment. You can...
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. ...