Many students wonder if their handwriting will affect their scores. Your handwriting is not assessed during the writing test and cannot affect your score. However, there are a couple of factors about your handwriting that you need to consider.

Technically examiners are not allowed to let a candidate’s handwriting affect how they assess your responses. That said having handwriting that is neat and legible will make it far easier for the examiner to the ideas that you're trying to communicate.

The Better Writing Utensil – Pen Or Pencil?

Both pen and pencil are allowed during the W1 and W2. You should choose the one you feel the most comfortable using. Also, you should note that if you use a pencil, it's much easier to erase your mistakes.

What to avoid when writing down your answers

Here’s a list of some of the big do and don'ts when it comes to handwriting, during the writing module:

Should You Write In All Caps?

Previously, students were allowed to write their essays and reports using all capital letters. However recent amendments to this rule require candidates to use proper lowercase letters.

Can Bad Handwriting Lower Your Score?

If you think about it, if your handwriting is extremely illegible, the examiner will have no choice but to penalize your score, which is why good presentation is still important.

How Can You Overcome This Issue?

Writing at such speeds as are required, during the writing test isn’t everyone's cup of tea. If you aren’t happy with how untidy your handwriting is, you could always try taking timed-speed writing tests. The average person can write about 100 words in 5 minutes. Try achieving this goal, while keeping up your legibility to an acceptable rate. Get your friends to read it and tell you just how understandable it is.

Many IELTS candidates do not understand why punctuation is such an important skill to master for the IELTS writing exam. This is mainly because punctuation is not really something that is necessary when we speak or communicate in English in our daily lives, and knowledge about punctuation has sort of becoming obsolete with the advent of word processing software like Microsoft Word and Grammarly, which often automatically corrects our punctuation mistakes as we make them. Therefore, many people are often unaware that they even make that many punctuation mistakes.

Why Punctuation Is Important

If you make several careless punctuation mistakes this will negatively affect your grammatical range and accuracy score.

Common Punctuation Mistakes

Full Stops Or Periods

This one is a simple one, that most of you already know. We use a period or a full stop to denote the end of a sentence. It is not used for any other purpose than that.

The Comma

This is a punctuation mark that often stumps students. I often find students adding it in every sentence unnecessarily or not adding it all. It all boils down to the fact that they are unaware of when to use it. Let us tackle this issue head-on

We use a comma to separate items in a list. For example,

I have been to Germany, France, and Italy

We use commas to separate two consecutive adjectives

A little, green teaspoon

Commas are also used to separate non-essential information.

The teacher, who was Singaporean, enjoyed giving lectures.

We use a comma after a conjunctive adverb or transitional element:

We also use a comma to separate independent clauses from dependent clauses, For example,

Commas are also used when we mention dates. For example

June 14^th, 2021

In the IELTS writing test, we often use phrases called ‘discourse markers’ or ‘liking phrases’ to link our ideas together, such as, firstly, secondly, in conclusion, in summary. We normally use a comma after a discourse marker that introduces a sentence:

Firstly, the main cause of pollution is motor vehicles.

On the one hand, motor vehicles are said to be the main cause.

Comma Splice

We do not use a comma to separate two independent clauses, that are unrelated to each other. This error is called a comma splice. In this case, we would be better off separating the clauses to form two separate sentences.

Semi-Colon

The semi-colon is another punctuation mark that is tough to use and to be honest I often tell my students to just avoid it at all costs and think of another way to phrase their sentences. This is because it is not always easy to decide when you need a semicolon.

A semi-colon is usually used to join two independent clauses in a compound sentence, but only if the meaning of each clause is closely related to each other. For example,

If you have any further questions about these common punctuation mistakes, or you have some other suggestions about other punctuation topics that you would like for me to tackle, then feel free to leave a comment down below!

Being able to write a good conclusion paragraph is a skill that most IELTS candidates are unaware of and is an important skill to master. Having a good conclusion can help to prove to the examiner that your score should be more than what they initially decided it should be. However, a poor conclusion can have the quite opposite effect. In this article, we will take a look at all the aspects that need to be included in a good conclusion.

What Should A Good Conclusion Include

In order to write a good conclusion, you need to know what to include and what to avoid in order to write a high scoring essay.

A good conclusion will:

Why Is A Good Conclusion Important

It's important for both the task achievement and cohesion criteria. It serves to summarise the contents of the essay and to emphasise the main opinion of the writer.

Some Tips To Write A Good Conclusion

Here are some tips about what to include in your conclusion, in order to make it an effective one. Firstly your conclusion should refer back to your introduction paragraph. The introduction paragraph is basically just a paraphrase of the question statement, and the first sentence of your conclusion (the summary sentence) will be a paraphrase of your introduction. Therefore your introduction and conclusion are always closely linked.

Once you have done this you should summarise the main points of your essay but remember to do this in a way that does not repeat the same vocabulary of phrases that you used in your main body paragraphs. This will signal to the examiner that you have a wide enough vocabulary for the task. Your summary should only include the main ideas and not any supporting ideas or examples, as this will make your conclusion too long and/or confusing.

The last sentence of your conclusion should either be a recommendation sentence or a prediction sentence.

A prediction is a statement about what you think will happen in the future.

A recommendation is a statement about what you think should happen in the future.

Do not add any new points in your conclusion, especially those that could have been added into the main body paragraphs. Remember your conclusion is meant to round up your arguments and emphasise your main opinion. Therefore, it is definitely not the time it introduces new arguments.

Let’s look at how to put these tips into action. Below is a sample IELTS question along with a model introduction and conclusion paragraph. Notice how both the introduction and the conclusion contain phrases that paraphrase the main question statements

For Example:

Some people believe that technology has made our lives too complex and the solution is to lead a simpler life without technology. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Introduction:

There are those who feel that technology has negatively impacted our lives by overcomplicating them and believe that we should eliminate it from our lives. This essay argues that in fact, quite the opposite is true since improved technology has actually made our lives simpler and has greatly improved our quality of life.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, I totally disagree with the opinion that we should turn away from technology because it overcomplicates our lives. We should rather learn to use technology wisely, as it has become an invaluable tool in almost every aspect of our lives.

Writing in the passive voice is something that does not always come naturally to candidates. Unfortunately, it is an important aspect of formal essay and reports writing. If you are one of those people who is confused about the passive voice and its use, then read on to find out all you need to know about this difficult grammar topic.

What Is The Passive Voice?

The voice of any sentence can be active or passive.

Active Voice:

The subject of the sentence performs the action

e.g. She wrote the letter.

Passive Voice:

The subject receives the action

e.g. The letter was written.

The passive voice requires the verb ‘to be’ to be in the past participle form

For example, Susan made these cakes

These cakes were made by Susan

In effect, we have basically written the sentence backwards and placed more importance on the object of the sentence than the object.

In order to form the passive voice, you must be very familiar with the various forms of “to be”

Let us look at an example of how we use “to be” with the verb “written”:

When Should You Use The Passive Voice?

We generally use the passive voice to talk about the opinion of others. For example. “it is believed by some...." , and we use the active voice when we want to convey (discuss) our own opinion. For example “I believe that.." Basically, it is used when you don’t want the reader to know who performed the action.

We also use these two different voices to show which noun we are giving more importance to, i.e. either the object of a sentence or the subject of a sentence.

Why Is Using The Passive Voice Important?

Using the passive voice is important for writing reports about processes. It indicates to the reader that the process is more important than the people who carry out the process. The passive voice is also used in more formal contexts and therefore it is essential to be able to use passive voice structures for any writing task that requires a formal response, such as reports, essays, and formal letters.

The passive voice is far too formal to use during the speaking test. During the speaking test you will mostly be using the active voice since it is more direct and it is easier to convey ideas and actions using the active voice.

As you can see the passive voice is not as commonly used as the active voice, but you should still be familiar with its usage to understand the listening and reading tests as well as when and how to use it during the IELTS writing test.

I hope that this article has helped shed more light on a complex grammar topic. If you have any further questions regarding the passive voice or any other IELTS related topic, feel free to ask me questions in the comments down below.

The IELTS Exam is a skill-based exam and not a knowledge-based one. Remember that the examiners are assessing your ability to communicate in English in a natural manner. Your scores are based on your ability to provide sufficient evidence that you do have the required English Language skills. This means that rote learning entire answers will not really help you get the band score that you want. It's all about appearing as natural as possible in all four components. However, that said it is useful to be able to memorise certain pieces of information and then be able to adapt and use whatever vocabulary and phrases you have memorised in a meaningful way. In this article, we will take a closer look at memorisation and the IELTS exam.

Useful Items To Memorise

Vocabulary 

Having a wide range of vocabulary will help you in all four modules of the exam. You will be easily able to recognise difficult words in the listening and reading exams, and you will also be able to use these words and phrases to improve your speaking and writing answers. This will help you to more effectively communicate and express your ideas. Remember when learning new vocabulary, it is also important to learn more than just the spelling and pronunciation, you also need to be able to understand how to flexibly use a word in different contexts and grammatical structures.

Useful Phrases, Linking Words And Discourse Markers

There are some phrases that are useful to use during your speaking and writing exam. You only need to memorise a few good phrases, since you will only be writing one essay on test day. I suggest you memorise phrases that can be used in a variety of situations, interchangeably.

For example, ‘well, to be honest’,’ from my point of view’ ‘from my perspective’ etc.

Essay Structures And Templates

While it is definitely not useful to memorise entire answers, you can make a note of the different structures and vocabulary needed for different types of essays. This will significantly cut down on the time it takes for you to plan your essays.

Why Memorisation Doesn’t Work

It Can Lower Your Score

Another important point to note is that it is pointless to memorize answers, as this will only count against you. Doing so makes you sound unnatural and the examiners are trained to detect scripted answers. Instead, you could become familiar with vocabulary and phrases related to the common topics for this particular part.

Try memorising useful expressions, structures and vocabulary by practising using them as much as possible.

It Can Make You Nervous

Another downside to memorisation is that if you are asked an unfamiliar question, you might become flustered and unable to answer. It will also be highly suspicious to the examiner if you have delivered previously flawless memorised answers and are now struggling to answer a question that is unfamiliar to you.

Hopefully, by now you have a better understanding of what you can and cannot memorise for the IELTS exam. If you have any further questions about this topic feel free to leave a comment.

As the day of your test looms closer and closer, you might feel your anxiety levels increasing, even if you have thoroughly prepared for the exam. While this is completely normal, there are some ways to overcome these feelings. It would be a shame to let your test day nervousness affect your score. In this article, we will look at a few last-minute things before you take your test, that has a big impact on your score.

Take A Practice Test

A few days before your test date, make sure that you take a complete practise test under strict exam conditions. This will help ease your mind and confirm whether you are sufficiently prepared or not. As always take a good and close look at any errors you might have made and think about why those errors were made. Take a quick refresher course in those sub-topics or question types by going over your notes on the subject.

Review Your Notes And Past Tests

Make sure to go through your previously prepared notes and practice tests. Pay particular attention to the areas in which you struggled with or commonly made mistakes. Keep these areas in mind when you sit for the exam.

Prepare Everything You Need For Your Test

The day before your exam gathers all the items that you are allowed to bring with you on test day. Doing this the day before the test will ensure that everything goes smoothly on your test day. You would not want to be in a panicked state just because you forgot where you put your passport or you forgot to buy the necessary stationery needed for the test. Make sure that you have your ID, photo, registration number and water ready. No other forms of beverages are allowed into test centres apart from water, so it is important to bring a clear bottle of water to stay hydrated.

Relax The Day Before Your Test

Do not study or cram the day before your test, this will only add to your anxiety. Make sure that you are well-rested and that you get good night’s sleep so that you will be able to focus and think clearly when you take your exam. Cramming before the exam will only confuse you more since you might not be able to conclusively comprehend whatever you are studying.

Eat Well Before The Test

The morning before the test, make sure you have a good breakfast well. Remember the IELTS exam has no breaks in between and you will be required to sit for the entirety of the test, without being to eat anything in between.

Above all, it is important to stay confident and enthusiastic. Do not let your anxiety about the test overwhelm you. If you have any further questions about the IELTS test, feel free to leave a comment below.

During the IELTS speaking exam, your responses will be assessed on 4 basic criteria, which includes:

Each of these accounts for 25% of your overall speaking score. Many students struggle with improving their pronunciation, mainly because it is such a wide-ranging topic, most students are unaware of where to begin. In this article, we will take a look at a few key areas that you need to focus on to improve your pronunciation for the IELTS speaking test.

According to the publicly available band descriptors to score beyond a band 6, a candidate must be able to ‘Use a range of pronunciation features’

The words “pronunciation features" are difficult to define but they do include:

It is impossible to change your pronunciation overnight, but here are a few tips that you can use to help improve your pronunciation right away.

Use Contractions

Contractions are also a staple of modern English conversation, and using them during the speaking test will make your speech sound more natural.

Using contractions makes you sound fluent, relaxed and natural.

For example: I’d, I’m, I can’t, I don’t, They’re, It’s, I’ve

When you learn English grammar, you usually learn the full, written forms e.g. ‘I would like a cup of coffee. However, this sounds unnatural when you’re speaking. A native English speaker would actually say “I’d like a cup of coffee”

Make Sure To Practice The Sounds That Are Difficult For You

Most languages have sounds that do not appear in the English language, and similarly, there are certain English sounds that are missing from other languages. For example, the Arabic language does not have a ‘p’ sound. In these instances, these missing sounds might be the toughest for non-native speakers to pronounce, since they are not used to using these sounds. Make sure that you find the sounds that are missing in your language and put extra effort when practising them.

Listen And Repeat

A great way to aid in your preparation is to familiarize yourself with how native English speakers speak. There are many ways in which you can do this. You could watch English TV programmes or News channels, listen to podcasts about topics that interest you or find content that is somehow IELTS related. This will also help acclimatize you to the sounds and unique pronunciations used by speakers. Try getting a hold of the transcripts and repeating what you have just heard, with the same pronunciation and stress. Pay attention to the rhythm & how intonation is used to show attitudes & emphasis. It would be best to record what you say and then listen back to it to see how it compared to the original audio.

Of course, a lot more effort goes into improving your pronunciation and continual practice is required to see any improvement, but hopefully, the above-mentioned tips can point you in the right direction. Improving your pronunciation will get you one step closer to the band score you need to achieve your work, study or migration goals.

A common thing that I hear students say is I’ve been practising for xx months. I’ve been going over past papers, but I’m still stuck at this band score!' If you don’t know what skills you need to master and haven’t actually mastered those skills, practice will never help you improve! This is why you need guidance about how to move forward with your preparation.

Why Just Practice Alone Will Not Help You Improve Your Score

Many students think that the more they practice, the more they will get used to the test and its questions types, and while this is true to a small extent, it does not make up for the fact that simply practising can never really help to develop a skill you don’t have. Think of it in this way, if I decide that I would like to play the piano, and instead of taking lessons of any kind, I decided to just practice playing and playing to my heart’s content. In the end, do you think I will become a master pianist, by using this method? No! of course not, I’d only end up annoying my family members around me! It’s the same idea with IELTS preparation.

Skills vs Practice

Taking mock tests will help you learn more about the format of the test and help you to reinforce the English skills you do already have. However, it will never be able to help you learn the new and necessary skills to conquer the IELTS exam. To do this you will have to use a variety of methods to help improve your language capabilities. This will include thorough preparation for each of the question types as well as a broader improvement of your language communication skills that will involve incorporating English into your everyday life. In other words, you will need to improve the English you use in everyday contexts – speak it with your friends, write notes and email in English, read English newspapers, listen to English radio. If you feel you need help with your English, you should also consider taking an English course.

Why Enrolling In A Course Is Necessary

To be honest most students just go the practice test route because they feel that they don’t have the money to spare on enrolling on an IELTS course. This often ends up being a costly mistake.

Most students think of taking an IELTS coaching class as an extra expense, which they don’t have the funds for. Not investing in taking a proper class for your test preparation is not saving money. In fact, you are most probably wasting money and valuable time as well. Failing to score well in the exam means that you will have to take the exam multiple times and you have to pay separately each time. This can easily become hundreds and thousands of dollars. This is not to mention the time lost.

Sure you can try to do it yourself – but do you really have the time do to that? Are you sure that you’ll be able to understand the finer points and details by yourself and what if you need to ask a question? In the long run, is it worth it to use all that time JUST to save the money used to pay for a course?

Unfortunately, there are plenty of candidates who have lost on the admission places or visa applications because they simply failed to produce the required IELTS scores within the specified time. Can you imagine losing out on your life’s dream, simply because you refused to pay a few dollars for a preparation course? It seems absurd but it happens all too often!

As the saying goes first impressions last and this is true for most things including your essay introduction for the IELTS writing module. Unfortunately, most students do not realise this and put very little effort into constructing the perfect introduction. In this article, we will take a closer look at how to write a good essay introduction paragraph and why it is so important to do so.

Why Writing A Good Introduction Is So Important

Your introduction paragraph is your first connection to the examiner. It gives them a clear idea about whether you have sufficiently understood the question or not, and it will also let the examiner know about the rest of your essay will be like. If you provide a messy and unorganised introduction, the chances are that the examiner will assume that the rest of your essay will be the same.

The Trick To Writing A Good Introduction

A good introduction should be 2-3 sentences long, and only 40-60 words long. It should take you only 5 minutes to write. Every formal academic essay introduction should include:

Paraphrase the question means rewording the question by using synonyms and changing the order of the sentence

A thesis statement is one sentence that expresses the main idea of an essay. It gives the examiner an idea about your viewpoint regarding the essay topic. The examiner can judge by your thesis statement whether or not you have fully understood the question. You will have to reuse the instruction words in your essay. It should be concise and to the point.

To summarise to write a good introduction you need to rephrase (paraphrase) the question statement using synonyms and then write a brief outline of what to expect in the upcoming paragraphs. Make sure that you clearly state your opinion in the introduction paragraph of your essay, in order to straight away give the examiner a clear idea that you have understood the meaning of the question. You could do this by stating something like 'I believe that ……. And in this essay, I will discuss the reasons for my point of view.

Sample question:

“A lot of places in the world rely on tourism as a main source of income. Unfortunately, tourism can also be a source of problems if it is not managed correctly.

Describe the advantages and disadvantages of tourism in the modern world. Do you think that the benefits of tourism outweigh its drawbacks?”

Sample Introduction:

Nowadays tourism generates a significant portion of the national income for many countries, but it has certain drawbacks too. This essay will examine the advantages and disadvantages of tourism and provide a logical conclusion.

Many candidates who have to take the IELTS exam as part of their work or study requirements are often concerned about how accurate the test is. They have some doubt as to whether their scores will be a fully accurate reflection of their true language skills. In this article, we will take a closer look at how the IELTS exam is developed and why this meticulous process ensures that there is no room for error when it comes to evaluating your linguistic abilities.

How Is The Test Developed

The test has a thorough development process and multiple stages dedicated to quality control.

The test is developed by Cambridge University and each year they commission experts from around the world, to participate in this process so that the exam can reflect real-world situations from across the globe. This is done so that there are no biases in terms of which part of the world you take the test in.

Stages Of Development

Commissioning

As mentioned before, a team of language experts are commissioned from different native English countries to prepare the questions for the exam. They base their work on a specific set of pre-determined criteria for the exam. Using these guidelines they begin the process of selecting suitable material for the test.

Pre-editing

During pre-editing the material that is initially selected for the test is sent for rechecking in order to ensure that they meet the testing criteria, (e.g. topic, level of language, style of writing, level of task, the focus of task). Items that do not meet these standards are sent back to the writers for further editing.

Editing

During this stage, the testing material is re-evaluated and edited until they all meet up the required specifications.

Pre-testing

A sample set of test takers from around the world, who also are preparing for the IELTS exam are asked to answer the new test questions. The data from their responses are collated and analysed to determine if the questions were of the correct level of difficulty.

Standard Fixing

Standard fixing involves assigning the correct scores and corresponding band score to the newly tested materials, based on the data analysed from the sample test takers.

Test Construction And Grading

The final versions of the test papers are developed and take into account the following:

Apart from this, data from actual IELTS exams are also continually collected to see if the initial conclusions about the levels of difficulty of the test and grading were accurate. Therefore the IELTS test development is an ongoing process.

Now that you know about the great amount of effort that goes into preparing for the IELTS exam so that it maintains its unparalleled level of quality, you can rest assured that your test will be fair and unbiased.