There are thousands of resources for both IELTS Academic writing tasks that you can make good use of. Also, there are plenty of model answers but it does not mean that your practice should include memorising them as examiners can easily spot such answers and you will risk having your entire test rendered invalid.
What to do to improve your writing skills and practice for the exam? Take a look at some of our advice, and you’re sure to ace the IELTS writing test.
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Understand the requirements for both tasks
The IELTS examiners use detailed performance descriptors when assessing your writing. They include:
- Task achievement (25 percent);
- Coherence and cohesion (25 percent);
- Lexical resource (25 percent);
- Grammatical range and accuracy (25 percent).
Your final score will be the average of the four criteria.
Task achievement means you answer the question. Coherence and cohesion means you structure your essay in paragraphs, and even the paragraphs within themselves. Lexical resource means vocabulary. Grammatical range and accuracy means that you use wide range of structures with full flexibility and accuracy.
You can check British Council’s website to read Task 1 and Task 2 requirements in detail.
Start practicing as early as possible
Take one sample question per day and write your answer. Luckily, there is a huge selection of IELTS Writing questions for you on the Internet. By doing so, you will learn about the test format, types of tasks, review your answers and compare them with model answers.
IELTS Academic offers practice questions and sample answers for Task 1 and Task 2.
IELTS.org has downloadable Academic Writing sample with answer sheets and examiner comments.
ESL Lounge has a range of exercises that give good practice of what you will face in the IELTS examination.
Always make an outline
If you want to keep focused as you write and save your time, it is necessary to make an outline of your essay or graph description. If you organize your ideas, you will also know what language you should use to complete the task.
The outline of the introduction should include a thesis sentence or important points to include (e.g. in Task 1 write what information someone should know about these charts/graphs/diagrams.). For the body paragraphs, your outline only needs to reflect the main topic for the paragraph, the evidence to be used, and, if appropriate, how it supports your thesis statement. There is no need to write an outline of the conclusions because restate your arguments and do not present any new ideas.
Focus on language
As you prepare for the IELTS exam, you should be working to build your vocabulary for a variety of topics. To get a high score you need to show the examiner a range of different words.
First of all, write down all the new words and phrases you read in the sample essays. Incorporate them into your writing as you feel comfortable and as they are appropriate. This way, you will improve your vocabulary through the practice course.
Secondly, learn some vocabulary to describe trends and key features in Task 1. IELTS Liz has created a list of verbs and nouns, adjectives and adverbs as well as time phrases you can use while writing your response. Learn vocabulary to describe graphs, maps and linking words to write essays.
Use online tools that will help you check your grammar and spelling. Hemingway App, Grammarly, After the Deadline, and ProWritingAid are only a few to name that can help you identify the most common mistakes you make. They will be helpful if you are going to take a computer version of the test. You should look for small mistakes in spelling and grammar. The more mistakes you make, the lower your score will be, so best ensure you make as little as possible.
You are assessed on your ability to use correct and appropriate grammar and on the range of sentence types that you produce. If you do not have much time to prepare or have already completed the preparation course, check IELTS-exam.net for grammar exercises.
IELTSbuddy offers explanations and exercises that will highlight some specific things related to IELTS so you can see how they are relevant.
Although IELTS does not have a separate section on exam for grammar, you will need to have an excellent grammar to get a high score. IELTS worldwide has a list of grammar issues you will have to review for IELTS.
Learn to punctuate correctly. It helps your readers to follow and understand your message, in the same way that using pauses and intonation help your listeners while you are speaking, and it matters for your score!
Don’t forget about timing and word count
Always practice writing on the answer sheet. It will help you know the amount of words you write on one sheet, and you will not need to do the word count on the day of the exam and waste your time on it.
Remember to spend not more than 20 minutes on Task 1 and 40 minutes on Task 2 as you prepare.
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