Struggling with IELTS Writing? Our experts have some simple advice to lift your score from band 5 to 7+.
IELTS Writing is a challenge, there’s no doubt about it. And we meet many candidates who feel stuck and frustrated. Luckily, there is often a simple reason for their struggle and an even simpler solution.
Here are the facts.
In Writing Task 2, an IELTS examiner marks your essay according to 4 criteria:
- Task Response (TR),
- Coherence & Cohesion (CC),
- Lexical Resource (LR)
- Grammatical Range & Accuracy (GRA).
If you want to score 7+, you need to score well in all 4 criteria. So, yes, you do need to have strong grammar (GRA) and a wide range of vocabulary (LR).
But what about TR and CC? What do they mean?
Well, you can look at the full description of the criteria here.
But there are really 2 important things you need to know to score band 7 or above in TR and CC.
1. Answer the question/s
But you wouldn’t believe how often we see candidates who miss half the question, write off-topic or fail to give a clear opinion. If you miss part of the question, you can’t score over band 5 in TR. If you are asked for an opinion and you don’t give it, you won’t score more than band 3 in TR. BAND 3!!
2. Write in paragraphs
Again, so simple. Make sure you always have an introduction, 2-4 body paragraphs and a conclusion. Visually separate your paragraphs by leaving an empty line so the examiner can clearly see the breaks and ensure each body paragraph has a clear central topic.
This writer here hasn’t used paragraphs. This means she can’t get more than band 5 in CC.
And this writer has tried to use paragraphs but they aren’t logical; they don’t make sense.
So, there you have it; 2 simple ways to improve your IELTS Writing!
For more help, watch our guided practice video here and learn how to write a complete band 9 IELTS Writing Task 2.