Day: 21 September 2015

Get A 6+ Band

When preparing for IELTS, all of us want at least a band more than 6. But then some get it and some don’t. But then what stops you to get a 6+ band!! Well, there could be many, but let’s talk about the five most common mistakes students make in their writing task that stops them at 5 or a 5.5.

  1. Missing clear overview- The overview is a short paragraph that tells the reader 2 or 3 of the most significant things about the chart, graph, table etc. It should contain no data and instead describe the main features in general terms. Students instead of writing an overview, straight away start writing the answer. If you notice the marking scheme of IELTS clearly, you will find out that to get a band 7 or more, a clear overview is very important.
  2. Mention Everything- In the questions of writing task, you are asked to summarize the information. Most students start writing about every thing that is mentioned in the graph, which lands them no where. This normally leads to a very disorganized essay and often means that you run out of time, or even worse, run over time and fail to complete Task 2. So, prioritize your answer and make sure it is organized.
  3. Complicate The Questions- When answering the question, students think that since it is an IELTS exam, it needs to be tough. However, the IELTS test makers know that you have seen the graph for the first time, and you have only 20 minutes to explain the graph. So, they only expect you to tell clearly about the major trends and answer properly.
  4. Unorganized Ideas – The most logical way to organize a Task 1 essay is:Paragraph 1- IntroductionParagraph 2- Overview of main features

    Paragraph 3- Details of main features 1

    Paragraph 4- Details of main features 2 .Often students, forget this and rather write quite haphazardly. If you write properly and according to a set pattern, you are more likely to get high marks.

  5. Incorrect Data Description – Often while explaining the data, students understand it wrongly. For instance if the prices increased from 12000 to 15000, they have increased by 3000, but students rather, write that the increase was of 5000 or something else. This causes you to lose marks.

So, go on, avoid mistakes and score high.

IELTSBAND7

 

Mistakes Made

In IELTS, we often are so busy finding the right things to do, that most of us forget that even if you don’t do wrong things, you will automatically do the right things. So, let us have a look at some of the mistakes made during the problem solution essays.

  1. Most of us think that more ideas we have, more marks we will get in IELTS. However, one does not gets marks on how many ideas one writes about, but how well you elaborate the idea.The examiner does not want a list of all the problems and solutions you can think of and please don’t do this in the exam. So, just pick out two ideas and expand on them.
  2. The next mistake made is when instead of writing about the problem and solution asked in the question, one writes about something else. For instance, if the question is about effects of global warming on urban areas and you end up writing about the issues of global warming, you have rather, made a big mistake.You should be like a sniper when answering the question and only give very specific ideas, rather than ideas that generally talk about the overall issue.L
  3. Linking issue. This mistake is made when one person writes some problems and then the solutions are provided for some other problem. Make sure that you provide the solution of the problems you have talked about.
  4. Being general. What happens with some candidates is that they think of really good problems but when providing solution, they give general solutions. Instead, you should be thinking of specific examples and explanations. We will look at how to avoid this below.

It is good to know how to do things right, but it is equally important to know the mistakes that can be made. This can surely save your day.

IELTSBAND7