Grammar mistakes can destroy your score not only in IELTS writing but in IELTS Listening and Speaking as well. This means it is pretty important to write correctly because if you make even little errors, you are unlikely to get more than 6 or 7. Grammatical range and accuracy make up 25% of your score for writing and speaking. Work on your grammar during your IELTS preparation, and get the desired score in 5 easy steps.
Step 1. Spot your weaknesses.
There are many key concepts of grammar different candidates might need to improve: tenses, subject-verb agreement, articles, conditional sentences, etc. As many students as many problems there are to be fixed. The majority of those who prepare for and take IELTS, have issues with 1-3 areas of English grammar. That’s why one needs to identify those in order to find out what needs to be improved.
For example, if you have difficulties with punctuation, it might reduce the score for your writing. Or if you are not good at using tenses, you are likely to fail both writing and speaking.
The simplest way to find out what problems you have is to do this with a teacher, a tutor or any high-level learner of English, etc. Share your writing with them and ask them to give you feedback on your grammar. It is likely that any devoted teacher of English would be willing to help you and make a contribution to your IELTS preparation.
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Step 2. Know the rules.
This can be compared to learning the traffic regulations and road signs. Grammar rules are the laws of the English language which is the ball of roads and streets with different signs and directions. Grammar rules show us how the language works and in what directions we should or shouldn’t go. If one doesn’t know the rules which run the problematic area of grammar, he or she will never be able to use that grammar.
Luckily, there are many resources to study grammar such as websites, coursebooks, etc. Pick up the topic you find problematic, read about it, and learn the examples.
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Step 3. Keep practicing.
Learning and knowing the rules of grammar is good, but understanding them better and integrating them into your writing and speaking is impossible without practice. After you have read the rule, learned the examples, you have to practice applying them, i.e. master your accuracy and then fluency.
Before you actually learn to drive, you study a lot of theory and road signs. You also do typical exercises with your driving instructor to train your muscle memory. And only after you stop thinking about how the clutch works and start doing it automatically, you are allowed to drive. When you drive for the first time, you might feel stressed and confused with many cars around you, traffic lights, and all the road signs. But the more you practice, the more confident you become. The same with grammar: learn the rules, study examples, notice new grammar in reading passages or listening, do a lot of exercises, commit some mistakes, analyse, fix.
Step 4. Use new grammar in your speaking and writing.
After you have worked out by doing grammar exercises, it’s time to produce your own sentences. If you know the rules, but do not use them in your oral communication or writing, you are losing them, and your grammar doesn’t improve. Practice using the grammatical structures in your speaking or writing. For example, when planning your answer in IELTS Speaking, it is a good idea to think about what grammar you are going to use. If the examiner asks you about your future plans, make sure you use Present Continuous, be going to, will, or Present Simple, probably 1st Conditional. If you are writing an essay, you will have to use complex sentences in order to achieve a higher score. When you are doing that, be conscious about using proper grammar.
You can record yourself speaking or keep your writing in order to do the next step.
Step 5. Work with feedback.
How do you know that you are using grammar you have learned correctly? Of course, it would be great if you could ask for some feedback from your teacher, for example. The teacher will tell you if you are using the correct sentence structures and if you have anything else to fix. You will learn a lot from the feedback you receive and still will be able to improve. Moreover, you can use this system not only to hone your grammar skills but also other areas of IELTS.
As you can see, it is not complicated and it is very effective, that is why we have created a fully online IELTS preparation course based on this concept. Its main focus is practice, detailed analysis of all types of IELTS Academic writing, reading, listening tasks, automated instant IELTS score on writing using artificial intelligence, step-by-step guidance, feedback on your writing and speaking, online lessons with certified teachers, full mock Speaking and Writing tests with detailed feedback from IELTS preparation experts.
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