🔵 Top tips to improve your writing score

ℹ️ Now you are familiar with the ins and outs of the writing section, let’s get into my top tips for performing at your best on test day.

🔝1. Use your time wisely

You get 60 minutes to complete the entire section. Task two contributes more to your score, so I recommend spending no more than 20 minutes on task one and 40 minutes on task two. Include time for planning and checking what you’ve written. It’s good to get into the habit of setting 60-minute time limits when doing practice tests.

🔝2. Check the number of words

You need to write a minimum of 150 words for task one and 250 words for task two. Anything less and you will lose marks.

🔝3. Understand the task

Read the instructions carefully, and underline or highlight the keywords. Know what questions you need to cover and what information you need to include.

🔝4. Organise your ideas logically

Spend up to five minutes brainstorming ideas and selecting what information you’re going to include. Organise your ideas logically, and include linking words and cohesive devices between paragraphs, sentences and phrases.

🔝5. Know your approach
Each task requires a specific approach.

ℹ️ Task 1 (Academic) – identify the main trends ande features; in the introduction, rewrite the information from the task using synonyms and grammar transformation; organise your main paragraphs logically; don’t describe every piece of data – only what’s relevant to the question; summarise the main trends from your body paragraphs in the conclusion.

ℹ️ Task 1 (General Training) – analyse the question; brainstorm ideas using bullet points; plan the paragraphs, addressing your bullet points; write the letter.

ℹ️ Task 2 – include an introduction, at least two body paragraphs and a conclusion; in the introduction, rephrase the question and form a thesis statement based on your opinion; write topic sentences setting out your main ideas – one topic sentence per idea – and use one topic sentence to start each body paragraph; in the rest of the paragraph, use explanations and examples to support the topic sentence; sum up your ideas in the conclusion.

🔝6. Think about style

Each task type requires an appropriate style (formal, semi-formal or informal), which will determine your choice of grammatical structures and lexical resource.

🔝7. Check your work!

When you’ve finished each task, always do a thorough check. It helps to ask the following questions.

🎯 Did you check the grammar and spelling?
🎯 Did you cover everything required in the task?
🎯 Did you organise the information into paragraphs?
🎯 Did you write a topic sentence for each paragraph?
🎯 Did you summarise your key ideas in your conclusion?
🎯 Did you rephrase the task in the introduction?
🎯 Did you use linking words and discourse markers?
🎯 Did you check for repetitions?
🎯 Did you use any complex sentences?

🔝8. Work on your grammatical range and lexical resource.

In the lead-up to test day, spend time reading different resources, such as ads, articles, manuals, magazines, reports and sample models from practice tests, to learn new words in different contexts. Practice creating sentences using complex structures and new words. Revise the grammatical structures that correspond to levels C1 and C2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages .

🔝 9. Learn from your mistakes

Start a learning journal to record mistakes from your own writing. Learn from these mistakes by correcting them, maybe working with friends or colleagues who are also preparing for IELTS. This way, you can turn your weaknesses into strengths.