They should be getting a 6 overall (or higher) for Task 1 Writing. But their scores look like this:
Task Achievement: 5
Cohesion & Coherence: 6
Vocabulary: 6
Grammar: 6
Overall: 5.5
That person’s score should be a 6. But it’s not.
And the reason is because they made one minor mistake with their overview.
The band descriptors state:
Writing that does not have an overview at all gets 5.
Writing that does not have a clear overview also gets a 5.
There’s one minor mistake that makes a major difference and stops the vast majority of students every week from writing a clear overview.
The Minor Mistake
This happens with every type of graph (maybe 75% of the time) but almost 100% with tables.
Here’s a table:
The graph below shows the average number of cups of coffee drunk per minute per person in three countries in 2000 and 2010.
2000
2010
Nepal
1.2
1.1
Vietnam
4.2
4.2
Indonesia
8.7
9.2
For their overview, 99% of students write:
People in Nepal drank the least coffee in both of the years while Indonesians drank the most.
Here’s another example:
The graph below shows the number of tourists (in thousands) visiting different attractions in the United States in 2004 and 2017.
2004
2017
The Grand Canyon
110
108
Yellowstone National Park
231
252
The Golden Gate Bridge
301
234
Disneyland
364
375
Trump Tower
870
952
And another common overview:
Trump Tower had by far the highest total number of visitors in both years surveyed while the Grand Canyon accounted for the lowest number.
The problem with both these overviews is that they just mention the top and the bottom, the high and the low.
That is not an overview – it is only the two key areas.
Both of these students will get 5 for Task Achievement even if the rest of their writing is absolutely amazing.
That’s because the overview requires an overview of all the information.
It is not a summary.
It is not writing about the main factors.
It is like a bird flying over a field seeing everything. You must include everything in your overview or it doesn’t count as an overview.
Are all countries mentioned? Are all tourist attractions mentioned?
If not, it’s not an overview. Task Achievement = 5.
How to Fix the Mistake
What can you do to make sure that you include an overview of everything?
Think of your overview as two sentences, not one.
For the first graph:
The graph below shows the average number of cups of coffee drunk per minute per person in three countries in 2000 and 2010.
2000
2010
Nepal
1.2
1.1
Vietnam
4.2
4.2
Indonesia
8.7
9.2
Band 5 Overview (just the high and low):
People in Nepal drank the least coffee in both of the years while Indonesians drank the most.
Band 6 Overview (all areas included):
People in Nepal drank the least coffee in both of the years while Indonesians drank the most. Vietnamese people occupied the middle position.
Band 7+ Overview (all areas included with more detail):
People in Nepal drank by far the least coffee in both of the years and there was a slight decline over the years while Indonesians drank considerably more than both other countries, including a small upward trend. Vietnamese people were almost directly in the middle in terms of coffee consumption and there was no change over the years.
You can still mention the top and the bottom as the main information.
Just include one more sentence so that you write about everything.
Same thing with the second graph:
The graph below shows the number of tourists (in thousands) visiting different attractions in the United States in 2004 and 2017.
2004
2017
The Grand Canyon
110
108
Yellowstone National Park
231
252
The Golden Gate Bridge
301
234
Disneyland
364
375
Trump Tower
870
952
Band 5 Overview:
Trump Tower had by far the highest total number of visitors in both years surveyed while the Grand Canyon accounted for the lowest number.
Band 6 Overview:
Trump Tower had by far the highest total number of visitors in both years surveyed while the Grand Canyon accounted for the lowest number. The middle posititions were occupied by Yellowstone National Park, the Golden Gate Bridge and Disneyland.
Band 7+ Overview:
Trump Tower had by far the highest total number of visitors as well as the largest rise in both years surveyed while the Grand Canyon accounted for the lowest number and experienced a small drop off. Trump Tower’s popularity was followed distantly by three attractions with roughly similar numbers: Disneyland, Yellowstone National Park, and the Golden Gate Bridge (the only one of the three to also have a downward trend).
The extra sentence does all the extra work!
What You Should Do
When you get to the overview in your Task 1 Writing – slow down.
Open your eyes. Write your overview.
Then go back to the graph and tick all the areas to make sure that everything has been mentioned.
Once you have done this, you know you will get at least a 6 for Task Achievement and the score you deserve.
Climate change is a phenomenon that affects countries all over the world. Many people strongly believe that it is the responsibility of individuals, rather than corporations and governments, to deal with this problem.
To what extent do you agree?
Sample Answer
Climate change is a very real danger that threatens not only our lives but also the quality of life of future generations. To combat this I strongly disagree that individuals need to take responsibility because governments, in cooperation with private companies have both a greater responsibility and capacity in this matter.
Climate change cannot simply be the responsibility of private citizens because they do not have the ability to affect large systemic changes in the way that governments in conjunction with corporations do. People can only contribute in small ways; for every person who recycles there are several people who do not and there is no certain way to change this. Governments, on the other hand, can enact legislation requiring both individuals and large corporations to abide by certain restrictions. Laws for corporations are the real solution as they contribute by far the most to climate change and by reducing how much waste produced and how they treat that waste, climate change can be seriously countered.
The second reason governments should be responsible for combating climate change is that governments are responsible for global problems while individuals should only have to deal with local and personal problems. A person should only concern themselves with their job and personal life because that is the extent of their responsibility. Governments are responsible for various things related to their citizens including security, health care in some cases, and education. Included in security is the environment because it impacts citizen’s well-being; therefore this falls under the remit of governmental responsibility.
Individuals will never be able to have the effect government will and it is not their responsibility at any rate. In my opinion, governments, by taking measures to rein in corporate and private waste are taking up their rightful burden.
Analysis
Introduction:1. Climate change is a very real danger that threatens not only our lives but also the quality of life of future generations. 2. To combat this I strongly disagree that individuals need to take responsibility because governments, in cooperation with private companies have both a greater responsibility and capacity in this matter.
1. The first sentence simply restates the topic and adds an extra detail to make it more powerful.
2. The second sentence clearly states my opinion, which necessary to get at least a Band 5 for Task Achievement.
Body Paragraph 1:1. Climate change cannot simply be the responsibility of private citizens because they do not have the ability to affect large systemic changes in the way that governments in conjunction with corporations do. 2. People can only contribute in small ways; for every person who recycles there are several people who do not and there is no certain way to change this. 3. Governments, on the other hand, can enact legislation requiring both individuals and large corporations to abide by certain restrictions. 4. Laws for corporations are the real solution as they contribute by far the most to climate change and by reducing how much waste produced and how they treat that waste, climate change can be seriously countered.
1. The first sentence is a topic sentence that includes my main idea for the whole paragraph (governments can effect more change).
2. The second sentence further supports my main idea by pointing out that individuals will not be able to have a large impact on the environment.
3. The third sentence further supports my main idea by saying what governments can do to have a large impact.
4. The fourth sentence provides more detail about what the government can do specifically (enact legislation).
Body Paragraph 2:1. The second reason governments should be responsible for combating climate change is that governments are responsible for global problems while individuals should only have to deal with local and personal problems. 2. A person should only concern themselves with their job and personal life because that is the extent of their responsibility. 3. Governments are responsible for various things related to their citizens including security, health care in some cases, and education. 4. Included in security is the environment because it impacts citizen’s wellbeing; therefore this falls under the remit of governmental responsibility.
1. The first sentence is a topic sentence that includes my main idea for the whole paragraph (governments are more responsible).
2. The second sentence further supports my main idea by pointing out that individuals should only have to worry about personal problems.
3. The third sentence further supports my main idea by saying that governments have many responsibilities towards their citizens.
4. The fourth sentence further supports this by saying that protecting the environment is part of the basic security the government owes to all its citizens.
Conclusion: 1. Individuals will never be able to have the effect government will and it is not their responsibility at any rate. 2. In my opinion, governments, by taking measures to rein in corporate and private waste are taking up their rightful burden.
1. The first sentence restates the main ideas from the sample answer.
2. The second sentence adds an extra detail (a solution) that is needed to get above a Band 7 for Task Achievement according to some, but not all, examiners.
Vocabulary Practice
Quizlet is one of the best websites on the internet that you are not using (unless if you are using it – then good!)
Don’t believe me? Click on the link below and use it to easily learn some high-level vocabulary from the sample answer above:
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.
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:
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
And this is code for…
Your introduction –POS:
Paraphrase the question, give your opinion, and then signpost to the examiner what you will do in the essay.
Your Body paragraphs –2-2:
2 main ideasfor2body paragraphs – one main idea per body paragraph, supported with relevant explanation and examples.
Your conclusion –OWE:
Restate your opinion, say why Reasons, then finish with a related extra thought or idea.
Customise it!
You could add to it or even come up with your own version.
Whatever you do, just make sure you find a way of remembering to do the basic things that will help you to get a band 7 for your Task Achievement and Coherence and Cohesion.
I’ve been teaching IELTS in different countries around the world for the last decade and I have experience with every type of student – what makes a student a success?
I’ve had students who improved their IELTS score dramatically in both short and long courses.
I’ve also seen students who studied for years and years without moving their score up an inch.
Let’s take a look at the differences between successful and unsuccessful students!
The main difference between these types of students is simple and has many names: Motivation. Determination. Grit. Resilience. Attitude.
The qualities of successful IELTS students!
Your IELTS journey will be mostly made up of stumbles, failures, and steep challenges.
The students who continue to work in the face of failure, who even enjoy failure and use it to push them forwards, will be successful.
A mountain climber doesn’t get discouraged when it is difficult to climb the mountain. They expect it. They enjoy it. They have a good attitude.
I see evidence of good attitude in several ways: students who show up to every class, take good notes, ask questions, focus, do their homework, do extra homework, and don’t get discouraged when they make mistakes or improve slowly.
If that describes you then you can stop reading this because you are already on your path to becoming successful.
If it doesn’t, read on and I’ll show you the 4 elements of a bad attitude and what you can do to have a good attitude from now on!
Bad Attitude
1. Comparing Yourself to Others
It is harder for you to focus on your own work when you focus on how much faster other people are working.
There may be a number of possible reasons for other students improving more quickly: they have been studying English longer, they have better study habits, they are better motivated or they are naturally talented at learning a language.
Those are just excuses. Ignore the people racing ahead of you!
You will improve as long as you are focused on your own English. As soon as you begin focusing on other people you will start to feel that your study is a waste of time, meaningless.
You can endure the difficulty and struggle if you believe it is meaningful. If you don’t think it is possible, then you will give up.
Be careful – the opposite of this is also true if you are a good student.
If you focus on how much better you are compared to other people, you may become over-confident.
Measure yourself against yourself. No one else.
In this way, you will make the best progress.
2. Failure is Personal
IELTS study is a long series of failures: You can’t write an overview. You make lots of grammar mistakes. You can’t think of the right word. It takes too long to write. And so on and so on.
This is a natural part of the learning process and it does not mean you are dumb. It simply means that you have more to learn.
If you think your failures are a permanent part of who you are, you will become demotivated.
You will not be able to enjoy studying because you will fear the next failure.
The worst part is you’ll try to hide your failures and mistakes from other people.
Failure is the key to success. But it has to be out in the open. You need to see your failures. And then correct them.
Fear or hide your failures and you will not make good progress.
3. Weak/Unclear Motivation
It’s absolutely essential to have a good reason for studying – a deep well of motivation that will get you through difficult challenges.
A lot of students don’t have clear goals for their study.
Maybe your parents are making you take the class but you don’t really want to.
Maybe your family is pressuring you to study abroad or learn English but you’re not interested.
Maybe you want IELTS for no specific reason – just to have it.
None of these reasons is very deep or important so they will fail to motivate you both in the short and long-term.
4. Bad Study Habits
This one is less psychological than the other elements of a bad attitude.
A lot of people just haven’t learned good ways to study. Maybe this is your fault. Or maybe you can blame the schooling system in your country.
It doesn’t matter. You need to improve your study habits if you want to get a good score.
Some bad habits include: taking notes but not reviewing them, not reviewing lessons, taking messy notes, not asking questions in class, studying a lot of hours in one day but not every day, not doing much practice, and having a disorganised notebook/materials folder.
Make a list of all your bad habits and try to cross them off everyday!
Good Attitude
In order to have a good attitude you just need to reverse the elements of a bad attitude:
1. Comparing Yourself to Others Measure Yourself Against Yourself
The only person you should compare yourself to is yourself.
Look at how good or bad your English was in the past. Could it be better? Of course!
Focus on how you could be better and ignore the people around you (both those who are better and those who are worse).
Focus on any improvements you can make. You’ll feel better about yourself and be more motivated to work hard and improve.
2. Failure is Personal Failure is not Personal
No one likes the feeling of failure. It hurts.
It makes you feel stupid. Incapable.
But you should try to connect the words ‘stupid,’ and ‘bad’ to your mistakes, not to you.
Good IELTS students don’t believe failure is personal.
Why?
Stupid and bad are not fixed qualities. Your abilities change over time. You go from bad to not-so-bad to good eventually.
Recent research has shown that your brain can physically change, even as you get older.
No quality is fixed.
Once you attach bad to your mistakes, rather than yourself, you will be free of the emotional impact of making a mistake.
Making a mistake doesn’t mean you are stupid. So make a 100! It’s fine!
Only by making mistakes will you improve your English.
Not feeling bad about your mistakes is the first step to failure which is the first step to success.
That’s a good, motivating reason. But it could be better.
Look at the reasons for your reasons and your motivation will become deeper and stronger, like a house built of stone rather than straw.
You want to study abroad because you want to experience life in another country. You want to get a better job. You want to work in the best companies, with the best people. You want to change the world in some way. You want to bring your experience back to your home country and help it. You want your children to grow up in a more developed country.
There are so many reasons! These are all firm bricks in a wall of motivation.
Add more bricks, more reasons, and the wall will become stronger and won’t be shattered by the occasional setback.
4. Bad Study Habits Good Study Habits
Some people are born with good study habits (maybe) but mostly people have to learn from their mistakes and get better over time.
Here are some of the good study habits I’ve noticed in my best students: reviewing their notes after every lesson within the same day, taking neat organised notes, studying consistently every day even if it is not that long, practicing all the time, focusing on 1 thing at a time (close your Facebook!), and having organised folders with old worksheets and notes.
One popular way to study vocabulary is to use an IELTS vocabulary list available online. It will probably have a sexy title like ‘Essential Band 8 Vocab‘ or ‘100 words you need for your IELTS exam‘.
Check out this list as an example, with the following claim:
“These words are indispensable for the IELTS Examination. You need to use these words in your Speaking and Writing Test. These words will greatly impact your IELTS Score.”
Firstly, the words on this list are the opposite of indispensable (essential) and they certainly won’t improve your score because you will find it very difficult to use them correctly and in the right situation.
In this article, I’ll explain why these words are so unsuitable as well as give you some tips about how to use lists effectively.
As you can see from the table below, it’s not about knowing a good range of vocab, but it’s very important that you know when to use it e.g. how formal it is, and how to use it e.g. correct collocations and/or prepositions
Band
Lexical Resource(Vocabulary)
8
A wide range of vocabulary used naturally and flexibly to express exact meanings
Skillful use of less common and idiomatic vocab
Very rare mistakes with word choice and collocations.
7
A good range of vocabulary used flexibly to discuss any given topic
Some ability to use less common and idiomatic vocab
Some mistakes with word choice and correct collocations.
6
A range of vocabulary used to give long answers
Meaning is clear although mistakes in word choice and form are common.
Too formal and Academic
Let’s take a closer look at the list. It’s arranged alphabetically and here are the first 5 words:
aberration, abhor, acquiesce, alacrity, amiable
These words are all very formal and extremely academic. A lot of native speakers may have never used them and may not even know the meaning of them. Seriously.
Some have very specific meanings. For example, Acquiesce:
to accept a decision, even when you don’t agree, but you don’t say anything, maybe because you know there’s no real alternative.
But the meaning only tells you half the story. You also need to know how to use the word and the kind of situation the word is used for.
The five words above are very formal and academic. So you can only use them to talk about specific, mostly academic topics. Also, you must use them in combination with equally formal grammar and vocabulary.
Let’s check out the following examples. What is the difference? Which is the correct usage?
Student #1. “My mum always makes me eat my vegetables. She spends a lot of time and energy to make dinner for me so I usually acquiesce her.”
Student #2. “Despite my reservations, I usually acquiesce to my mother’s demands for me to always finish my vegetables, as she puts a lot of time and energy into making dinner for me.”
If an examiner heard student #1 the use of acquiesce wouldn’t sound natural as the surrounding vocab is much less formal and they didn’t use a preposition (acquiesce to someone) so they haven’t shown they can use this word correctly and naturally so this keeps their score at band 6 or less.
Student #2 is much better as the surrounding vocab is suitable (e.g. reservations, demands), and they used the correct preposition. So this is correct and natural use which will help them to achieve above band 7+ for vocabulary.
A good tip for how to know how to use the word and more importantly the kind of situation is google it and check out the news tab:
You can see from the search results that this word is commonly used to talk about political decisions and negotiations.
You need to ask yourself “Is it likely that I will want to talk/write about this (accepting political decisions) in my IELTS exam?“.
If the answer is “Yes!”, then go ahead, learn this word, study it’s meaning and usage, including the situation, collocations and grammar, and practice using it in your speaking and writing as often as you can in the weeks and months leading up to your test.
But be aware that a word like this is very specific – so sure it will impress the examiner if you use it correctly, in the right situation, but how likely is that? To be honest, It’s highly unlikely.
STUDY TIP: Read the sentences containing the target word or phrase. If you can’t understand those sentences, then the target vocab is probably too high level for you at the moment.
Phrasal Verbs – natural and idiomatic
A more natural, common and therefore more useful strategy would be to avoid very academic words and focus instead on good collocations with verb phrases and phrasal verbs.
As we saw in the band descriptors earlier, examiners want a good range, including idiomatic vocab, which includes many phrasal verbs and theses are a much safer option than using idioms like ” raining cats and dogs” which native speakers don’t commonly use.
Suitable alternative phrases for acquiesce could include ‘let someone win’, ‘give in to someone’s demands’, ‘agree to someone’s request’, ‘force someone to do something’.
“My mum always forces me to eat all my vegetables. She spends a lot of time and energy to make dinner so sometimes I complain but usually I just give in to make her happy.”
If you search “give in to” on google news, you can see from the examples below that a phrase like “to give in to..” is much more flexible and natural and it can be used to talk about a range of academic and everyday situations:
-Zimbabwe ruling party says will not give in to military pressure.
-Arsenal should not give in to Mesut Ozil’s latest contract demand
-Don’t give in to the pressure of driving drowsy.
-High Grade’s Strawberry Cough Shatter: Give in to the Cough!
Here’s a video from our YouTube Channel with a little more detail on collocations (phrasal verbs are one type of collocation).
Practice in Context
Another good strategy for learning new vocabulary is to link the new phrases you are learning to topics and practice in that way.
So this means either learning a group of words related to a particular topic or to clearly have a topic in mind when you’re practising new words.
For example, make notes about as many real situations as you can both in daily life and in the past when you ‘give/gave in to someone/something’, and/or ‘someone forces/ed you do to do something’.
Next, practice talking about these situations (record yourself on your phone, listen back and check your grammar and collocations).
You can practice talking about these situations from a more personal point of view (to prepare for Speaking Pt1&2) or from a more general point of view (Speaking Pt3 / Writing Task 2).
Personal – “My parents forced me to study business at University. I wanted to study design but in the end I gave in to their wishes.”
General – “In my country, parents of high school students often forced their children to study sensible subjects such as business or accounting. I think they these students often want to study something else but but in the end they give in to their parents’ wishes.”
Create your own lists
So overall lists are a great way to focus you on studying new words, but it’s probably better to create your own lists from suitable words taken from your daily English use, and then follow the strategies above.
If you’re not sure about a word or phrase, try googling it, and if you’re still not sure, please get in touch and we’ll be happy to tell you.
Try to make a list with related words like this if possible:
Now it’s your turn! Put your answers in the comments.
Choose a word you think is good to use in the IELTS exam.
What does the word mean and how to use it?
Here are some ways to start writing your comments:
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