So many students lose a lot of marks because they don’t know or forget to do the basic things that examiners want to see in your writing for a band 7 or even 6.
In this article, I’m going to share with you a tip that can help you remember easily, and therefore save you a whole band score.
You can see how it works out in all my sample answers here.
Be sure to avoid the mistakes that most students make on writing by signing up for my exclusive IELTS Ebooks here on Patreon.
Dave
The Basics for a Band 7
According to examiners I know, so many students lose marks for their Task Achievement and Coherence and Cohesion because they don’t do the basic things that are needed for a band 6 or 7. This includes things like:
clear introduction
clear conclusion
clear overall opinion
main ideas supported well
one main idea per body paragraph.
Don’t know how? Let us help
If you’re not sure how to write a band 7+ introduction or conclusion, please check out the other blog posts in our Task 2 Writing section.
Once you know clearly what you need to do to make the examiner super happy, then of course the next step is to spend weeks, even months practising so you can do it for any topic or question type.
Don’t forget in your exam!
But then, there is one last challenge – remembering to do it in the exam.
I’m not exaggerating when I say that based on the examiners I talk to, more than half of IELTS students fail to do these basic things in the exam.
So why do many students fall at this hurdle? Is it a lack of practice or could it be nerves?
Whatever the reason, all of that study and practice will go to waste if you don’t remember to do it in the exam.
Write a Mini Checklist!
The solution is to write a quick checklist to remind you of all this basic stuff. So as soon as you open your question paper, quickly write down the following notes:
POS 2-2 OWE
Salut!
What do you think about omit personal pronouns when it comes to giving our opinion in the introduction. Do you as ex-examiner suggest or discourage the use of: This essay will discuss both point of views and will come up with a reasonable conclusion; this essay believes that…; this essay will …., ?
Please, enlighten us with your wisdom..
Merci!
Personal pronouns for your opinion are 100% fine. You shouldn’t use them throughout your writing but a couple of times is no problem – I often do it in my sample answers. There’s no difference in terms of marking ‘This essay will discuss both point of views and will come up with a reasonable conclusion; this essay believes that…; this essay will’ and ‘I will/I believe.’ Those phrases have some better vocabulary but they are memorised phrases so they won’t have a massive impact anyway. Is that clear?
Yes, Sir. I was confused as I’ve spent some time reading band 9 essays, and many of them answer the questions stating: this essay believes that… and the like.
Merci!
Yes, that is a very formal way to start an essay, it is not necessary. You can also say ‘In my opinion’ or ‘I believe.’ You shouldn’t use ‘I’ throughout but a couple times is normal. I tend to use ‘I’ instead of ‘This essay…’ because I think the latter is too formal and pretentious- neither will hurt your score!
Does that answer your question?
Sir, how to join and pay? on how much essays per month you give your feedback by evaluating. My writing is very poor. i need 7 band.
Thank You
For $14.99 a month you study video lessons, workbooks, review and supplemental materials. I evaluate 1 writing or speaking a month but if you want more corrections I can do those as well: course.howtodoielts.com/online-course
What do you mean by 4 in body paragraph code?
It just means 2 for 2 – as in two main ideas for two paragraphs. Would it be easier to remember if I changed it to 2 for 2?
I think is better to put just 2-2
Thanks for the feedback!
Hi Sir, for an opinion essay if I write: ” In my opinion, I believe that …… and in this essay, I will support my view with valid arguments and examples” will this statement negatively affect my score?
I really impressed. I was just tried for looking a good guideline. I prepared myself at home for ielts but don’t get a goof guide line. But now got this one. Thanks to moderator to created this one. Love & respect from me . Once again THAKNS for this
Thank you Shanto and really appreciate your kind words!
Hi
Hello!
Hello sir,
I need ffedback on my essay writing from you as I need 7 in WRITING but struck at 6.5 bands. How could I avail your service?
Hi Manpreet – the easiest way is to sign up for Patreon.com/howtodoielts and choose the tier that allows you to have your writing marked.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Great post indeed, perfectly summarized about the IELTS writing task test. We can use idioms efficiently to improve writing quality.
Actually, you shouldn’t use idioms in the writing task because they are too informal, not academic enough.
Hope that’s clear, Srijiah!
I really suck at linking ideas to main idea . This leads me somewhat to contradiction.how to improve it?