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  5 Common IELTS Task Response Mistakes

  23 August 2018

  Every week I mark dozens of IELTS essays, and each student has their own unique problems stopping them achieving a high score. Some struggle with subject/verb agreement, others have problems using joining their ideas, and many use unsuitable vocabulary. However, despite these differences, it never fails to amaze me that students make the same FIVE mistakes with Task Response, no matter which country they are from or what their level. So, in today’s blog post, I want to go through the 5 most common IELTS Task Response mistakes, and how you can avoid them 🚀

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  Do I need to include my opinion in the introduction to an IELTS Discuss Both Sides essay?

  05 August 2018

  This is the question I see most often on social media, and the one that shows me that IELTS students are focussing their preparation in the wrong place! In today’s blog, I won’t just answer this question, but I’ll explain the logic behind my answer, so you can clear your confusion forever and never need to ask it again! First, let’s spend a couple of minutes thinking about what good introductions to essays need to do.

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  Using good examples in IELTS essays

  07 July 2018

  How important is using good examples in IELST essays? Well every IELTS essay question ends with the same instruction: Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from you own knowledge or experience Write at least 250 words Include relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Mmm – this instruction seems clear enough, but what does is actually mean? What are “good examples in IELTS essays?

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  How can you think of ideas for your IELTS essay?

  29 June 2018

  So, you are sitting in the exam room feeling confident. You have prepared well. You know how to organise all the possible types of essay. You can use distancing, and referencing, and hedging. Your use of transition signals is superb. Everything is good in the world. But then, the exam starts, you open the question booklet, read the task and……………….Nothing 😯…………… You don’t have a single idea 🙄………. Not one 💀……… Your head is totally empty 🤔 ………………….. There’s just you, the question, and a growing sense of panic.😱 What do you do? How can you brainstorm ideas for your IELTS essay when inspiration fails you? 😰

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  How can I add balance to my IELTS agree/disagree essay?

  22 June 2018

  When you open your exam paper and see the instruction Discuss both views and give your own opinion, it’s obvious that you HAVE TO give equal space to both opinions in your essay to fully address all parts of the task. But, what happens when the instruction asks you To what extent do you agree or disagree? Is it still important to discuss both “sides” of an argument, or are you free to have a “strong” position? And, if you do consider the other position, how and where can you do this in your essay so that your position remains clear? I mean, how can you show “balance” when arguing your own opinion?

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  The dangers of paraphrasing in IELTS essays

  17 May 2018

  If I was allowed to give one ONE tip to an IELTS test-taker before they sat their writing exam, it wouldn’t be to learn how to organise all of the different types of essay, it wouldn’t be make sure they included lots of complex sentences in their work, it wouldn’t even be to make sure they directly answer the question! No, it would be BE CAREFUL OF PARAPHRASING in IELTS essays!

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  Time’s Up! What to do if you run out of time in the IELTS writing exam

  12 May 2018

  Imagine this – there are five minutes left in the exam and you are only halfway through your second body paragraph! What do you do?! WRITE A CONCLUSION!

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  Never write a mixed tone IELTS letter!

  15 March 2018

  OK, you are a IELTS General Training student sitting in the writing exam. The invigilator tells you that you can open your test paper and begin. You look at the prompt for the letter. What are you hoping to see? An informal letter, a formal letter, or a semi-formal letter? In my experience, most test-takers would say informal. I mean, writing a letter to a friend is easy, right? WRONG! 🙅‍♀️ And that’s because 99% of the informal letters that I mark are MIXED TONE.💀

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  “All sheep are white……. How to avoid over-generalising in an IELTS essay”

  18 January 2018

  In the writing exam, it can be easy to make claims that are generally true, but NOT always true. This can limit your score for Task Response to a 7.0 (which I know for most people won’t be a problem, but for some test-takers an 8.0 in TR can be the difference between a 6.5 and a 7.0!) So, how can you avoid over-generalising in an essay?! IELTS hedging!!! 

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