The writing section of the exam is intended to evaluate the appropriateness in organising your ideas and writing a response best suitable to articulate the information. It is important to use precise words and grammar.
The IELTS writing section comprises of 2 tasks for which the allotted time duration is 60 minutes.
Task 1 involves a 150 word essay where the candidate has to summarize, illustrate or give explanation about some visual data like tables, pictures, graphs etc by writing in their own language whereas in Task 2, the candidate is required to give a critical response on a viewpoint or a situation. The response should be significant and relevant to the topic.
The evaluation of writing section is similar to the other 3 sections and the result is awarded in the form of band score.
In general, candidates have fear and anxiety of the writing section as this part cannot be learned through self study and it requires being crosscheck and verified by a professional. This section requires accuracy in vocabulary, grammar relevance between the sentences. People with English as their first language or a proficient speaker of English are sometimes incapable of getting a good score in this section.
As it is said “Practice makes the man perfect”, hence, with proficient training and practice, anyone can score good bands in this section.
Here are some tips on preparing for the writing section:
Be careful of the word count:
Task 1 requires word count of 150 words whereas in Task 2, the candidate has to complete the answer in 250 words. It is important to write few more words than the word count or else there are higher possibilities of losing the marks.
We recommend you to write atleast 160-180 words for Task 1 and approximate 260-280 words for Task 2. Also, it is important to count the words by lines instead of counting each and every word to save time.
Manage the time prudently:
As already mentioned, total time allotted for this section is 60 minutes. Try to complete Task 1 within 20 minutes as it carries less marks whereas you should manage atleast 40 minutes to complete Task 2. Task 2 carries the maximum score in this section.
Good planning and organization is important for completing both the tasks. Hence is it advisable to spare atleast 3-4 minutes before and after responding to each task. The candidate should practice time management adequately well before the exam.
Understand the needs of both tasks
The examiners use comprehensive performance indicators to evaluate the answers for both the tasks.
- Task completeness (25%)
- Logical and organized structure (25%)
- Language and terminology (25%)
- Accuracy and choice of grammar (25%)
Your score will highly depend on fulfilling these 4 criteria efficiently.
Through and extensive practice
As already said “Practice makes the man perfect”. There are ample of resources and practice papers available for candidates based on both the tasks. The candidate should remember not to memorize or grasp the answers. It is important to have thorough understanding of the subject.
Also, the examiners are aware of the model answers and they can analyse easily whether the candidate has written the answer with his understanding or by simply memorizing the sample answers from online resources. This may also lead to low performance and poor band score for this section.
Spelling mistakes, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation cannot be learnt by cramming a night before the test. More number of mistakes will lead you to score less marks. Hence, it is important to take guidance and practice as much as possible.
