This download lesson is kindly provided by Tish Kirkland of Yes! IELTS. Tish has special insight into the examining process and here she talks you through what it takes to score band 7 in task 2 – the essay. It should be particularly useful for people who are stuck on band 6 or 6.5.
One of my favourite pieces of advice for IELTS candidates is to learn how IELTS is marked – on the basis that unless you know what to do, you won’t do it. And this is exactly what Tish does for you here. What she does is analyse in detail how the band score descriptors work and what examiners look for when they decide if an essay is good enough for band 7.0.
I should add that if you are aiming for a higher band score, then Tish has a link on the download to take you to more advice for that level.
Hi,
Sir I had been living in england ,now iam in my country which is in asia please advice me I already attempt twice time I got 5 band overall .Teacher usually say if you read you improve writting same with the of listenning you improve speaking .
I am very bad in writting with same in reading listenning now better and my speaking well ,but when I speak to front of my teacher he said wrong grammer you using .for example english people they speak very short word .say that again= I beg my Pardon .
In writting ?
in reading ?
please advise me any more help fo improve all parts with free
In over country people usually give advertise 8 band ,7.5 band granted
What do you think how long does it take for that person ,who got 5 band want to improve?
Email me please
There are no rules about how long it takes to improve – it can take months and months though. There is a huge difference between band score 8 and 5. Sometimes people seem to improve very quickly but that only happens when there base level of English is already high and they just need to find out a little about the exam.
will yo please give me a suugestion to improve my essays as Iam always stuck on to 6.5
If you keep getting the same score, you really need to talk to an experienced teacher to see what it is you are doing wrong – it may be for instance that you are have a grammar problem that is holding you back or it might be that your Task Response isn’t quite right.
hiii
i got less band in writting and reading,so can u suggest me dat how shud i score 7 band ion both these sections……….mu speaking n listening is quite good but i have to work hard in writting n reading
All I can do is suggest you read through the advice above and maybe contact Tish for lessons – a good teacher may be the answer
Hi, this is a very useful article about the marking for ‘Task Response’. Are their similar articles for the remaining three descriptors? I was unable to find anything that specific on Tish’s site. Thanks, Angela
I do have my own materials but they are a little less detailed than Tish’s so I’ve forwarded this comment to her
Your blog is such a great help to all of us who are studying for the IELTS exam. I find myself to be improving with my writing skills; however, I’m still criticized for not being able to show some style in my essays. I was advised to add in figures of speech and use idiomatic expressions — (e.g. puffing their lungs out – smoking excessively). Do you have any references or recommended sites for which I could look this up? Thank’s!
Oh, so it is fine to use idiomatic expressions in essay writing? Im quite confused because one of my friends told me that no idioms should be written on my essay. ^^
This is not an easy question to answer. You do need to be careful though in how you use idioms in your writing. The best advice is to aim for a relatively neutral tone.
Your Blog assist me alot but i stuck to band 6 score in writing and i want 7 band ,so could you plz let me know what extra efforts should i put in writing task
Sorry, I really can’t help you without seeing your writing – each student is different. That said, it is worth considering your “error count”. If you make enough mistakes, you cannot get a grammar score of above 6. Though you should always be aware that grammar is only ove score and vocal, coherence and task response count equally.