Tips on September 9th 2013
Always check your work!
Remember IELTS is an English test, not a test of your knowledge. If you have not finished writing and you only have 2 minutes left in your exam. STOP!!! and check your work!
When practicing at home, practice under timed conditions
You may be able to write 2 excellent essays in 1 day that would get you a band 8. But can you write two in 1 hour? It’s a lot harder and you need to practice your time management (check out our writing page for some sample questions).
Structure of Task 1 (A diagram)
Introduction – (approx 30 words)
You should start by writing what the diagram represents. You can do this by paraphrasing the title(s).
Follow this by stating what the overall General Trend of the diagram is – this means looking at the big picture, i.e. overall what is the data showing you.
The next paragraph should be a description of the data that supports your general trend (approx 100 words). You must include data in this section. The paragraph can be split into shorter sections if appropriate.
The third paragraph could be a short paragraph (if appropriate) to show data which does not support your general trend. You can begin – ‘It is interesting to note that………………
The last paragraph should be the conclusion. This should be a short paragraph which restates the general tre
Structure of Task 2
Introduction – (approx 30-50 words)
You should start with a general statement about the topic. For example:
A lot of people feel very strongly about smoking, so the question of where we can or cannot smoke cause emotions to run high.
This could be followed by your Thesis statement (personal opinion)
In my opinion smoking should be prohibited in public places for a number of reasons.
The supporting paragraph should be approximately 100 words in length and in this paragraph you have to state your arguments which support your thesis statement. Use connectors/linkers to join your ideas and sentences together.
The third paragraph is a non supporting paragraph and should be roughly 100 words in length. In this paragraph you have to state your points for the other side of the argument i.e. points which do not support your thesis statement, or contradict it. Use connectors/linkers to join your ideas and sentences together.
The conclusion is a short paragraph which summarises your opinions and/or restates your major point.
As you can see, I am in favour of nobody smoking, but I really don’t think it is possible to force this on everybody.