Is 6.5 good in IELTS writing?
Welcome to My IELTS Classroom podcast. Today, Nick and I discuss one of the most important IELTS questions – why are so many students stuck at a 6.5 for IELTS writing? Is it because there is a conspiracy to trick test-takers, or are there other less sinister reasons? Show
This is a Patron Only Episode: Click here to support the show and gain access to the audio or continue reading about why students are stuck at a 6.5 in the blog post belowhttps://www.patreon.com/myieltsclassroom Below, you can find a summary of the episode, which includes all of the links to useful materials and the times of each part of the discussion (so you can go directly to the part you want to listen to).You can also find every free episode of the podcast here 🚀 Subscribe to My IELTS Classroom podcast on Apple podcasts here Podcast Summary: Why are so many students stuck at a 6.5 for IELTS writing?00:00 – 03:46 Introduction (and a discussion of the pyramids!!!)03:47 – 12:58 Could IELTS really be changing students’ writing scores so that they cannot achieve a 7.0 in writing?In short, no! However, let’s look at every part of the IELTS system to see 1) if it is possible that they could change students test scores and 2) if they really have the motivation to do so!
Discover the secret to writing a Band 7.0+ essayThen download a copy of our FREE e-book, which explains the most common errors made by test-takers and how you can avoid them. Just click here for your copy. Yes! I want to download your free e–book12.59 – 20:55 Why do students often get a lower score in writing than the other three parts of the test?So, based on the arguments above, I think it is just much more likely that students receive a lower score for writing than the other parts of the exam for the simple reason that their writing is not quite at the same level as the other three skills. And, honestly, this makes a lot of sense to me if you consider these factors:
However, the best argument that I can offer to prove that IELTS test centres are not changing scores is my own experience. When students join my school, they have the option of adding marking to their video course. Those students who join my Silver or Gold Writing Packages, have the chance to send me an essay that I will analyse for free. This gives me a chance to find out the student’s level before they start the course and know which lessons I have to ask them to watch to start their preparation with me. I can honestly say that students hardy ever send me an essay that would satisfy the public band descriptors for their first assessment. So, if you are currently “stuck” at a 6.5, I strongly recommend that you accept it is much more likely that it is because your writing is not quite good enough than that there is a global IELTS conspiracy. If you can do this and start working on improving your writing, it will not only help you to improve more quickly, but it will also be a lot less stressful! And to help you, Nick and I are going to tell yo u the most common errors that we see each week that are preventing people getting a 7.0. 20:56 – 22:06 Introduction to Task ResponseRead more about Task Response here22.07 – 31:35 Shelly’s biggest Task Response problem: Not addressing the questionThere are two ways that students can fail to address the task
Let’s start by looking at the first. Students get really stressed about what exactly they have to do to answer each type of IELTS question, but there is just one simple answer – just do what IELTS asked you to do! For example, one common question is “Discuss both views and give your own opinion”. Therefore, to address this task, it is vital that you do all three of these things. For example, imagine if you were given this simple question: Some people think Shelly is the best IELTS teacher. Others believe that it is Nick. If you wrote these paragraphs
Then you have NOT discussed both sides because you have only given me arguments for why Nick is the best. Remember that one of the views is that I am the best, so you MUST offer some arguments in favour of me! In fact, you can have both of these arguments, but they both belong in the SAME PARAGRAPH (the one with arguments in favour of Nickl)! You would also need two ideas for the opposite view to address the task fully:
Do you see the difference? If you only give negative arguments for one view, you are not discussing it. Remember, you are not asked to discuss two TOPICS (shelly and Nick), you are asked to discuss two VIEWS (Shelly is the best, Nick is the best). You can read more about this type of problem here. Read more about Discuss Both Sides hereDiscuss both sides questions are not the only ones that causes problems. I often see issues with problem / solution essays. This is because there are three things you can be asked to do in this type of essay:
However, you are rarely ever asked to do all three in an essay. You are usually only asked to do two things. Usually it is 1 and 3 (explain the causes and give some solutions) BUT NOT ALWAYS! I have marked many exam papers where student gave me solutions for a problem even though they were not asked to provide any! If you do this, your essay will be off-topic, so read the question carefully. However, if you prepare properly for IELTS it will be almost impossible for you to make one of these basic errors. For example, I can happily say that no student I have ever trained has failed to correctly address the question. However, sadly, a number of students I have worked with have failed to address the TOPIC of the essay properly. This is because:
31:34 – 35:40 Nick’s biggest Task Response problem: not expanding your ideas enoughIt is really important that you extend the ideas in your essay. One simple rule that will help you to this is to never have a single-sentence argument. In other words, every time that you give an idea, you must write one more sentence to explain it. Asking yourself the questions “how” or “why” can really help you to naturally extend your ideas. Also, you don’t need an example to support every argument. I would recommend that you have only ONE per paragraph and just having one in the whole essay is totally fine. I have written a lot about writing good examples in this blog post. 35:41 – 37:24 : Introduction to Coherence and Cohesion37:25 – 40:55 Nick’s biggest Coherence and Cohesion problem: not having clear topic sentencesOne of the main criteria in the band descriptors for IELTS Coherence & Cohesion is having a clear central topic in each paragraph. The way to signal to the examiner what the main idea in your paragraph is to start with a sentence that clearly states what you are going to discuss i.e. the topic sentence. So, what does a good topic sentence look like? Well, that will depend on the type of essay you are writing. If you are writing a paragraph that contains TWO arguments i.e. a discuss both sides essay, a problem / solution essay, or an advantages / disadvantages essay then you just need a GENERAL topic sentence that lets the examiner know the main idea of the paragraph. However, many students don’t do this. Instead, they start their paragraphs by giving their first argument. Why is this a problem? Well, if your paragraph has two arguments then your “topic sentence” will only cover half of it! Remember you are giving two arguments that are united by the general idea. For example:
So, remember, if you are going to discuss two arguments inside one paragraph (which is often a good idea) then make sure your topic sentence is general. You can read more about writing good topic sentences here. 40:56 – 46:50 Shelly’s biggest Coherence and Cohesion problem: mechanical use of cohesive devicesI would say that this is the most common problem that I see when marking student’s first assessment essay. It is a common misconception that to score highly in IELTS, you need to start every sentence with a transition signal – this is not true! This is what the band descriptors refer to as “mechanical use of cohesive devices” and always results in a 6.0 or less. Take this paragraph, for example. It contains far too many transition signals and would be greatly improved by removing “To elaborate” and “Moreover’.
Also, notice how this starts with “Firstly”. That is totally fine. I have been told by so many students that they were told that using “Firstly” automatically results in a 6.0 for C+C. This is totally preposterous and the type of false rumour that drives me crazy! What examiners are looking for is how you generally join your sentences – there are no blacklisted words! The key is using not too many and not too few! 47:13 – 48:44 Introduction to Lexical ResourceRead more about Lexical Resource here48:45 – 57:39 Nick’s biggest Lexical Resource problem: poor paraphrasingThis is by far the most common problem I see and the one that has the most damaging effect on a student’s score. I think that most of the time poor paraphrasing is born from one simple misconception: you can never repeat words in IELTS. This is not true! Yes, there are times when paraphrasing is great and will definitely boost your Lexical Resource score, but not every word in English has a good synonym and very few have two or three! Take this task for example, I have seen so many good essays ruined because students have tried to find synonyms for the underlined words.
For example, you cannot use “at the secondary phase” or “at the mid-level” to paraphrase “secondary school”. In the same way, “young ones” is not a suitable paraphrase for “a child” and “novel medium of communication” cannot be used to replace “foreign language“. It would be much better to use the words from the text than these confusing “paraphrases”. Often, it is the verbs in a task that can be paraphrased best, not the nouns. For example, in this question you could change “start” to “begin” or “enter”. How do you know if your paraphrase is good or not? Well, imagine using it in a sentence when you are talking to a friend. Would they understand you?
No? Then just use the words from the task! You can read more about how to use lexis accurately here. 57:40 – 01:00:06 Shelly’s biggest Lexical Resource problem: fake transition signalsBecause weaker students know that it takes a long time to learn topic-specific vocabulary, they also wrongly think that if they can trick the examiner by leaning some clever and rarely used transition signals to boost their lexis score. However, cohesive devices are standard expressions that have been used for centuries. While some slang words may come in and out of fashion, transition signals never change, so trying to use a “new” one will not increase your score – it will only damage it. Here are some of my “favourite” fake transitions (and to be clear, when I say “favourite”, I mean the absolute worst!). Please NEVER use any of these (or any others that your teacher has “invented” to increase lexis your score)! 01:00:40 – 01:0:39 Introduction to Grammatical Range and Accuracy01:01:39 – 01:05:34 Shelly’s biggest Grammatical Range and Accuracy problem: not having a wide enough range of sentence structuresExaminers can only “pay” you for a sentence structure once, so there is no point repeating the same type of grammar again and again. You won’t lose marks for this, but if you have three result relative clauses in your essay and no other complex sentences, then you are likely not to have the range needed for a 7.0. Although we never want to “force” grammar structures into an essay, we have to make sure that we show the examiner our full potential. This means that you need to be mindful of the language you are using. Why not have a look back at some of your essays now to see if you are showing a wide enough range of sentence structures. Are you really showing the examiner everything that you are capable of, or are you using the same sentence structures again and again? 01:05:35 – END Nick’s biggest Grammatical Range and Accuracy problem: poor subject / verb agreementObviously the main problem students face with grammar is being able to construct sentences that are error-free. Yes, you have studied the rules for months, maybe even years, but putting all of that information together in the exam room can be difficult. It is especially difficult when you are also focusing on addressing the question, joining your ideas and having a wide range of lexis! One common error even for high-level students is having subject / verb agreement. In English, it is really important that the subjects of our sentences agree in person and in number with the verbs/nouns that we use. If this is a new concept for you, then have a look at my free blog lesson to learn more. Other common problems areas for accuracy are articlesand contrast clauses, but if you are unsure which parts of your language you need to work on, why not take my free IELTS grammar test to locate your weak areas today. Take my IELTS grammar test to find out your problem areasWhy am I getting 6.5 in IELTS writing?It is simply a by-product of the IELTS method of scoring. If someone receives a band 6.650, it gets rounded down to 6.5. But if someone receives band a 6.750, it goes up to band 7!
How is IELTS 6.5 score in academic writing?Coherence and Cohesion. have either four or five paragraphs but not more and not less. this means you should have two or three body paragraphs only.. have just one central topic in each body paragraph.. organise your ideas logically.. use a range of linking words.. avoid errors in linking words.. What is a 6.5 in IELTS equivalent to?Alignment of IELTS bands and PTE-A scores. What is the difference between 6.5 and 7 in IELTS writing?A 6 essay/letter has a variety of sentence structures with quite a few mistakes, but none that prevent the examiner from understanding what you mean. A 7 essay/letter has a lot of perfect sentences, and a range of sentence structures.
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