hi there it's asiay imagine that you need to get band 7
in each section of the ielts exam to pass it and you get a score like this
most people get their lowest score in ielts writing and getting band 7
rather than 6.5 is particularly tricky in order to improve your result you must understand the real
reasons for low scores and that's what we're going to discuss today okay let's get started
first let me show you one technical aspect of ielts writing that may really surprise you
and then we'll discuss several major mistakes that anyone can make and check some examples
the key reason for low scores is the way ielts writing is assessed no it's not unfair or random
but it's very strict not only do ielts examiners look for english skills i mean good vocabulary and
grammar but they also check your writing skills and to get a high score you need to present
well-written clear answers that cover everything that's required give enough arguments don't
contain any irrelevant detail and the list goes on basically examiners use four assessment criteria
for each task the first two task response for task two or task achievement for task one
and coherence and cohesion depend more on your writing skills while lexical resource or your
vocabulary and grammatical range and accuracy or your grammar depend on your english skills
let's say you need band 7. to get this score you must fulfill each requirement for each criterion
let's say you meet each requirement but one if some parts of your task are more fully covered
than others your task response score will fall to band 6 and your task 2 score will be 6.5
and even if you get band 7 in task 1 your writing score will be 6.5 to compensate for this mistake
and still achieve band 7 you must get banned 8 in another criterion that's why understanding ayats
writing requirements and knowing how to meet them is key to getting the highest score you can get
with your current level of english and that's why in my courses i explain what ielts examiners
look for in your essay and how you can write essays that satisfy all those requirements
but here i want to tell you straight away they're not looking for big words or complicated sentences
now let's talk about task two and i'll show you several major mistakes which anyone can make
but which will severely affect your score the first mistake is not answering the question
fully and it's much more common than you may think here is a topic from cambridge practice book 13.
living in a country where you have to speak a foreign language can cause serious social problems
as well as practical problems to what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement
first of all you must answer this exact question and not write more generally about the wider topic
let's say if you're right about pros and cons of living abroad it's a mistake
if you discuss whether people should or should not move to live in other countries it's a mistake
even discussing problems of people living abroad is a mistake you must answer this question
do you agree that people who live in a country where they have to speak a foreign language may
experience serious social and practical problems so you should discuss two types of problems social
for example it's if it's difficult to find friends and practical you may not fully understand the
contract you need to sign and say if you agree or disagree that people will experience a social and
b practical problems you must do everything that's required in the task if for instance you only
discuss social problems but not practical that's band five for task response not even band six
the next mistake is not making your opinion clear sometimes i read a student's essay
paragraph after paragraph thinking does he agree or disagree because there are arguments for both
and then finally in the conclusion it's written i disagree with this statement and i have no
idea how they arrived at this conclusion your opinion must be clear throughout your essay
talk about it in your body paragraphs explain why you think so you may even wish to present
your opinion as early as your introduction and that's what i actually recommend doing
then in your conclusion all you need is to restate your opinion i know there's a lot
of confusion about whether you should present your opinion or not or whether you should only
give reasons why you agree or also reasons why you disagree we've just updated our task to course and
i added a lot of information about that there for each type of essay so you will find information on
what you need to discuss in usa which sides you need to consider whether you need to
express your opinion or not and what kind of opinion you may have so if you have access to
this course check it out even if you took the old version but in short i want to say this
don't be afraid to express your opinion you won't lose marks for that and don't contradict yourself
don't say that you agree and disagree with the same statement make sure that
your opinion is crystal clear you've probably heard that you should use a variety of formal
linking words such as however moreover and furthermore this is true but that's not all
your ideas should also be logically connected each sentence should logically follow from the previous
then apart from linking words you should also use pronouns it this there
those and so on and references let me show you a paragraph from an essay
the topic is not enough students around the world choose to study science subjects at university
what are the reasons for this what impact does this issue have on society
let's read the introduction technology is rapidly changing the lives of people around the world
creating a high demand for university graduates with a background in science now in the second
sentence i want to show a contrast however the number of students studying relevant subjects
is well below the required level in this instance the linking word however connects sentences next
this problem seems to be caused by outdated preconceptions which determine young people's
choices today the linker here is this problem the pronoun this indicates that the problem itself
was described in the previous sentence so this is my introduction now the first body paragraph
one of those preconceptions is that certain subjects are better suited for men again i
mentioned preconceptions in the previous paragraph and the phrase one of those preconceptions
links my paragraphs together in your essay you should use different ways to connect your
ideas not just linking words and if you'd like to see the full essay you can download it in the pdf
format i'll leave a link in the description the next mistake is not writing a conclusion
i suppose very much everyone knows they need it but 60 minutes is not much time for two tasks
so there is a risk you may run out of time before you finish this last paragraph
well you have to make sure it doesn't happen why a sign of band 5 for task response is this
there may be no conclusions drawn in simple words if there is no conclusion
you will not get more than band 5 for your task response that's 25 percent of your task to score
but that's not all if the essay doesn't reach any conclusion examiners consider that it lacks
progression and that's a sign of band 5 for coherence and cohesion another 25 of your score
so if you miss a conclusion you're guaranteed that half of your task 2 score won't be above bank 5
ouch the lesson is you have to manage the time well to make sure that you write your conclusion
truly understanding what is required in ielts writing is key to passing this exam in my courses
you can learn how to meet each requirement what to write about in each paragraph and in each type
of task where to express your opinion how to do it and how to write your answers more quickly to
actually finish in 60 minutes i have packs of courses for academic and general training
students these include full courses for writing task 1 and 2 and ielts speaking i think you can
prepare for listening and reading more quickly so you receive two step-by-step guides that will help
you prepare using my free materials and official practice tests yes the official tests are the best
if you enroll in these courses using the links in the description you get a bonus masterclass on how
to use english tenses in your ielts exam on top of all the other courses the links are below please
check them out and that's all for today right now you can download the full essay we discussed in
this video thank you so much for watching me today good luck with your preparation and your exam bye