Hi there! It's Asiya! For today's video I took the official IELTS practice
tests (these are the books and you can see all my bookmarks here) and
the official guide to IELTS. All of them are published by Cambridge English, which
also writes the IELTS exams. So what I've done is I've analyzed all sample
answers and examples provided in these books and I've selected things
about IELTS writing task 2 which go against some well-known advice on IELTS
preparation or simply things that no one talks about. And that's what I'm going to
tell you in this video. I also have a question. Do you want to see a similar
video about Task 1? If yes, leave me a comment and also tell me if you're
preparing for IELTS General Training or Academic. The reason I'm asking is this.
Recently I made a couple of videos about Task 1, including a video with the full
sample answer about a task with charts (I'm going to link it here) and not many
people watched it and YouTube stopped recommending them all together. I'm
wondering if you are still interested in materials about Task 1 or you prefer
materials about Task 2. Now leave me a comment and let's get started!
number one stay extremely close to the topic in order to get a band nine for
your task response the maximum score you need to fully address all parts of the
task what does it actually mean let's take a sample question some people
believe that information should be free and available to anyone others believe
that certain business and research information is too valuable to be shared
freely and instead should be sold discuss both views and give your opinion
how would you structure an essay like this what would you write in each
paragraph please pause the video now and think about it and then resume it
ready here is a basic task 2 structure it usually consists of four
sometimes five paragraphs an introduction two or three body
paragraphs and a conclusion so we need to discuss both views and we discussed
view one why the information should be free in body paragraph 1 and
why the information should be sold in body paragraph 2 is it enough well not
quite the topic also mentions for research and business information so we
need to address these points inside our body paragraphs what I could do is in my
body paragraph 1 when I'm discussing why the information should be free I would
say that research would go faster and in body paragraph 2 when I'm discussing why
the information should be sold I would say that in business information is an
asset which has a value so it has to be sold and of course don't forget that
these topic asks for your opinion and you need to express your opinion in the
introduction and the conclusion you can also mention it in your body paragraphs
as well to summarize in IELTS you need to answer the question asked at the end of
your task and also you need to address every point mentioned in your task
number 2 using personal pronouns I we you might our and so on I know that most
of you taken as academic exam but this advice is applicable to IELTS general
training students to you when you use an academic writing style
your writing is extremely formal that's what students do when they write papers
at university or what academic researchers used in their academic
papers so this time it doesn't use I my or any other personal pronouns and at
all even this time you should use in IELTS writing some of the
questions directly ask for your opinion and you need to say I think I believe in
my opinion so everyone agrees that you use personal pronouns then however it
seems most IELTS experts take the video that you should not use personal
pronouns in any sentences apart from sentences where you express
your opinion is it true oh basically this is the approach
I've been recommending to you too and the reason is it helps to create a
more formal and more complex writing and actually achieve a high score but do you
actually need to achieve a band 9 most likely a band 7 will be good for you right
so can you use personal pronouns in your essay
what's the room in Cambridge book 13 there is another answer which achieved a
band 7 score where the student used personal pronounce many many times I've
written down some of the sentences there are a lot of choices in our life I would
say it is a good thing I can always find something I mean no one is the same so
he is personal pronounced many times and in general the essays
written in in a semi-formal not too formal style quite simple with many
simple words but the essays were structured concurrent with almost no
mistakes and that was enough to achieve a bad service goal in the earth's
temperature guide there are some other examples such as we would find it
difficult to get through a working day without the internet or in my country
house driving through the city centre are charged at all you
although I still prefer limiting the user personal pronounced to and she were
more formal more sophisticated writing if you have to use them in order to
construct a correct sentence go for it number three no conclusion means no
progression you probably know that you need to write a conclusion and your task
2 essay if there is no conclusion it means that your task response code will
not be higher than band five it's painful but there was the sample answer and to
comment from the examiner said this essay doesn't reach any conclusion well
there was no conclusion as a result there is a lack of progression and
that's already a coherence and cohesion score and a lack of overall progression
is a sign of a band 5 in coherence and cohesion
so if missing a conclusion means 50% of your task to score will not be higher
than 5 5 that's really painful so always write a conclusion and if you're running
out of time and you can't finish everything just leave your body
paragraph unfinished but write a conclusion in this case you're not gonna
lose as many points number 4 balance between complexity and accuracy
basically if you want to get a band 7 8 or 9 score for your vocabulary and grammar
you need to use a less common or uncommon words and phrases and also
complex grammatical structures but your writing also must be accurate let's say
your complexity is a band 8 and your accuracy is a band 6 then you're gonna get
a 6 for your vocabulary or grammar the lower of the two so if you want to get
7 8 or 9 you really need to limit me the number of mistakes you make
number five smart ideas don't mean a higher score some simple answers were
written in relatively simple words with very simple ideas but they were current
well-structured they answered the question they had almost no mistakes and
they achieved advance seven score for example there was this essay about
problems of having too many choices in life and the student dedicated a whole
body paragraph to discussing the problems of light on the sofa choosing
between a hundred TV channels in very simple words but the essay was accurate
it hasn't the question and it achieved a band 7 score but there was another essay
about the consequences of the Cold War and how it affected the development of
certain countries it wasn't the topic of a student chose
those ideas to illustrate his point you can feel it's a different level to
lying on the sofa choosing between TV channels right basically
better say only cheap depend five school the student used a number of conflicts
was but he used them inaccurately and they command from the examiner was that
the student lacked proper vocabulary to express his ideas medically he lacked
sophisticated vocabulary to express his sophisticated ideas and my point is
don't write overly complex and smart essays unless you're only satisfied with
the band eight or nine if a band 7 score is good enough for you then choose
simpler ideas you'll find it easier to choose right words to express them
number six complex grammatical structures are not
only complex sentences a lot has been said about the necessity of writing
complex sentences in your se I will have a video about six
type of sentences that will help you to get about a score for your grammar
however as many descriptors mention complex sentences but also complex
grammatical structures and those include many different things such as various
verb tenses the passive voice modal verbs such as ought to should might and
gerunds taking a holiday or writing an essay to
name a few basically in order to get a band seven
score you absolutely don't have to write very long and complicated sentences that
it was a lot of information let's summarize
you need to answer the essay question but also address each point mentioned in the
task it's not a deadly mistake to use personal pronouns in your essay I might
we if you have to use them go for it if there is no conclusion in your essay
you're gonna lose so many points whatever happens right at least a
one-line conclusion your scores for your vocabulary and grammar are the lower
between your accuracy and complexity so find the right balance and remember that
smart ideas do not necessarily bring a higher score but they may actually
reveal that you're lacking proper vocabulary to express them in order to
get a high score for your grandma you should use complex sentences but also
complex grammatical structures such as Baris verb tenses Durance at the passive
voice modal verbs and so on but of course you need to write complex and
compound sentences too and I have a video about six types of sentences that
will help you to get up and a score for your grandma thank you for watching you
today good luck with your preparation bye