10 IELTS Writing Tips From Examiners Teachers Students Improve Your IELTS Score
Hi, I’m Martin.
Welcome to Oxford Online English!
In this lesson, you can get ten essential
tips for your IELTS writing exam.
How’s this video different?
Well, we collected feedback from students
who took IELTS, and also interviewed IELTS
examiners.
Our aim is to give you the most up-to-date
IELTS advice, and also give you tips which
you might not find elsewhere.
We’ve also included our own top tips, which
we’ve developed through teaching hundreds
of IELTS candidates.
You can study with us too, if you want; book
classes on Oxford Online English dot com.
One more thing, do you want English subtitles
while watching this video?
Turn them on now if you like.
If your overall IELTS score is between two
bands, your score is rounded up.
For example, if you score 7-7-7-6 in the four
sections, you’ll get band seven overall.
In the writing exam, it probably doesn’t
work the same way.
Why ‘probably’?
Well, there’s no clear information publicly
available, and even the examiners we spoke
to weren’t sure.
However, according to the best information
we have: if you score seven for task achievement,
seven for coherence/cohesion, seven for vocabulary
and six for grammar in your writing exam,
that will be rounded down to 6.5.
What does this mean for you?
It means that you can’t have any major weaknesses.
If your target score is seven, you probably
need to score seven in all four areas.
Do you make multiple small grammar errors
when you write?
This will likely limit your grammar score
to six.
If you get one score of six, then getting
band seven overall becomes much more difficult.
OK, if you score band eight in one area, then
you can score band six somewhere else and
still get seven.
However, it’s rare that we see students
with some scores much higher than others.
Generally, the four scores – TA, C&C, vocabulary
and grammar – are close together.
So, if your target score is, for example,
seven, you need to aim for seven in all four
areas.
Find your weakest area, find out what you
need to do to hit your target score, and give
it extra focus when preparing.
In the past, IELTS examiners would count how
many words you had written, and apply a penalty
to your TA score if you hadn’t written enough.
They no longer do this.
No one will count your words.
So, you shouldn’t do this in the exam, either.
Why did they change?
The idea is that you can’t write a full
answer while writing less than the word count,
and this will be reflected in your TA score
anyway; there’s no need for an extra word
count penalty.
So, focus on writing full, well-developed
answers which answer every part of the task.
Don’t worry about word count.
This applies to the exam.
When practising, you should count your words.
However, don’t focus on the word count as
a number.
If you find it difficult to meet the word
count, this strongly suggests that you aren’t
answering the task fully.
Ask yourself: what could you add?
What ideas could you explain in more depth?
How long do you think the examiner will spend
reading your writing?
It depends, but the basic answer is: “not
long.”
Examiners we spoke to said they spent around
five minutes per task on average; one mentioned
that he has heard of examiners spending only
three minutes per task.
If I’m marking some IELTS writing, I need
ten to fifteen minutes to do a thorough job.
If the examiner is spending only five minutes
– or less – then they’re not reading
everything carefully.
What does this mean for you?
It means you should follow obvious strategies.
Don’t experiment; give the examiner what
they’re expecting to see.
For example, in general task one, write a
separate paragraph for each bullet point in
the task.
In academic task one, put your overview in
a separate paragraph near the start of your
answer.
In task two, start each body paragraph with
a clear topic sentence.
You don’t have to do these things to get
high scores, but most people follow these
methods.
If you take a different approach, examiners
might not take the time to read your work
carefully and understand what you’re doing.
Keep it simple!
It’s hopefully obvious that if you can’t
write a high-scoring IELTS answer in two hours,
then you can’t do it in one hour, either.
Often, IELTS students try to write with a
time limit, like in the exam.
Of course, the time limit is important.
But, if your writing has problems, then you
should fix the problems first, and worry about
the time later.
For example, many IELTS students we meet have
big problems with TA in task two.
Often, the problems relate to planning and
organising ideas.
When we start practising, it’s common for
students to need thirty minutes – or sometimes
longer – just to plan one task two answer.
If this is your situation, then don’t worry
about time limits at first.
Focus on writing an answer at your target
band score.
If it takes three hours, then OK.
Once you can consistently hit your target
band score, then start training for speed.
Here’s a common question which IELTS students
ask: how do I get ideas for my essay in task
two?
I don’t know.
You need to solve that problem.
If you’re in the exam, and you read the
task two question, and you think “I don’t
have anything to say about this”, then you’re
in a bad position.
There’s not much that can help you at that
moment.
You need to prepare for this before the
exam.
So, what should you do?
First, read as many task two questions as
you can, and think about them.
Second, if you don’t have a strong opinion,
then try to find some news articles on the
same topic.
Read articles with different opinions, and
think about what you do or don’t agree with,
and why.
If you have someone to practise speaking with,
then debating is also helpful.
Take a topic; you and your partner choose
one side each.
Then, you have a debate, you try to support
your side and argue against your partner’s
points.
Third, here’s a useful exercise: take a
task two question and write two practice essays
on opposite sides.
For example, look at this question.
To practise, write two essays.
The first argues that climate change is the
most serious environmental problem facing
humanity, and the second argues that other
environmental issues are equally serious.
Sound like a lot of work?
It is!
But, to score seven or higher in task two,
you need detailed, well-supported ideas in
your essay.
There’s no short cut.
A question: what score will you get if your
essay is not 100% on topic?
IELTS examiners have a term: ‘on-topic,
off-task’.
They use this for essays which are in the
right general area, but which don’t answer
the question directly.
Such essays are limited to band four for TA,
and five for C&C, maximum. This problem
applies to many of the IELTS essays we see
from our students.
You must train yourself to read the question
carefully.
Think about every single word.
For example, look at the task two you saw
just now.
Before you can even think about this question,
you need to think about some of the ideas.
For example, what do ‘serious’ and ‘important’
mean here?
What does it mean for one environmental problem
to be more serious than another?
What are ‘other environmental issues’?
These are not simple questions.
We often see IELTS students who start writing
without thinking about these things.
Then, they write an on-topic, off-task essay.
It’s easy to do.
You might be watching this thinking: “That
wouldn’t happen to me!”
It might.
It’s one of the biggest and most common
problems we see.
Look at a task two question.
Now, look at a different version.
Can you see the difference?
In the task two instructions, it matters whether
a word is singular or plural.
For example, if the task asks you to describe
‘the main problem’, then you need to focus
on one, and only one, problem.
If the task asks you to describe ‘problems’,
then you should include at least two.
The same is true with other words you’ll
see in many IELTS questions, like ‘benefits’,
‘advantages’, ‘disadvantages’, and
so on.
Pay attention to whether the word is singular
or plural.
Stronger answers – band eight or nine – tend
to be longer, especially in task two.
It’s quite difficult to write a full, well-developed
essay answer in only 250 words.
Remember also that there’s no upper limit.
Of course, you need to be careful that your
essay is well-organised, with logical paragraphing
and a clear progression from the beginning
to the end.
So, if you’re aiming for higher scores – 7.5
or above – you should probably be aiming
to write a longer response in task 2.
Writing more allows you to develop your ideas
in more depth and
use a wider range of vocabulary -
both of which are necessary for the highest band.
Sometimes, you’ll hear IELTS advice like
‘your ideas don’t matter, so long as they’re
relevant’, or ‘it doesn’t matter if
what you write is true or not’.
We might even have said similar things in
the past!
This advice is true to a point; if your target
is band six, then sure, this advice is fine.
If you’re aiming for higher scores – seven
and higher – then you can’t think like
this.
Your ideas matter.
Not all relevant ideas are equal.
Ideas which are more focused, more detailed,
and better-supported are better for your TA
score.
If you’re aiming for band seven plus, you
should approach your task two essay in this
way: imagine you’re writing for someone
who has the opposite opinion to you, and you
really want to convince them to change their
mind.
We sometimes see questions about academic
task one like: “How do I deal with a bar
chart question?”
“What do I do with a map question?”
And so on.
Actually, you can approach all academic task
one questions the same way.
Imagine you’re writing for someone who can’t
see the chart, or the map, or whatever.
Now, imagine that this person is going to
read what you’ve written, and try to draw
the chart.
Can this imaginary person do it?
Can they recreate the chart, using only what
you’ve written?
If they can, then you’ve written a high-scoring
answer, at least for TA and probably C&C.
So, don’t overthink it.
Write your answer with this idea in your head.
Your task one writing will improve immediately.
We’ve seen this work with many students!
Wait, what?
Only one task one tip?
IELTS students don’t generally have so many
problems with task one, either academic or
general.
And, the problems they do have are relatively
easy to fix.
So yes, we only have one major task one tip.
But OK, here are two quick bonus tips for
task one.
For task one general, the most common problem
we see is tone – meaning how formal or informal
your language is.
People either write in an inappropriate tone
– in most cases, this means using language
which is too formal for the task – or, they
mix formal and informal language in their
answer.
For high task one scores, your tone needs
to be both appropriate and consistent.
For task one academic, learn some phrases
to describe statistics and figures.
Many academic task ones are quite similar:
you need to describe trends and data.
This requires a limited range of language,
which you can – and should – prepare for.
For example, do you know any words which have
the same meaning as ‘increase’?
What’s the difference between ‘rise’
and ‘raise’?
Finding the answers to these questions will
help you to write a better task one answer
in the academic writing exam.
That’s all.
Thanks for watching!
See you next time!