Dear all aspiring for good bands in IETLS test, I have scored 7.5 bands in IELTS general training test and I feel obliged to share my perspective on how to get good bands in writing a letter and an essay. Following are some of the tips that I learned with time and experience, that are worth considering for a non-native English candidate for IELTS test.
Firstly and most importantly, you should read and understand the question very carefully. It is frequently observed that an individual can easily be defocussed and ends up writing irrelevant facts. So, the bottom line is to thoroughly understand the questions and it sub-questions and address all of them. The examiners call this as task achievement part of writing.
Secondly, do a careful planning before start writing, jot down the points that come up in your mind. You may not need to write full sentences, I think the keywords should suffice. Once you are done with this, organize your essay/letter in a logical form, a group you related points in the same paragraph. A quick tip here is to start a paragraph with a general statement and then provide sufficient evidence and elaboration for this. Examiners will be checking your skills of organizing your points/thoughts.
In addition to this, never miss to join related points with linking words like however, nonetheless, therefore, consequently, unless, unfortunately, luckily, undoubtedly etc. Be careful while framing complex and compound sentences to avoid mistakes in using nouns, verbs and tenses.
Another must do thing is to have a variety of words in your writing, you need to brush up your vocabulary with some less commonly used words. However, pay attention to the usage of these words and incorporate them in a right context.
Time management is another very important thing to learn. You should spend some time on planning before delving into writing and finally on checking and fixing mistakes. In my perspective, 3-4 minutes are enough for checking your letter and 5-6 minutes for the essay.
Furthermore, grammatical and spelling mistakes may considerably hamper your chances of getting 7+ bands. My recommendation here is to keep a list of your spelling mistakes in some diary and recheck them before appearing for the examination. Kindly bear in mind that writing part is in the last part of test after listening and reading, in several cases, an individual is bit exhausted.
Lastly and extremely crucially, you must never miss the conclusion of your essay. You can start the conclusion with words like the conclusion, summarize, finally, nutshell, precisely etc, to the best of your convenience and relevance.
A general tip for all is to try to improve basic English writing skills and to improve your writing you should not ignore to do adequate amount of reading newspapers, magazines, blogs on the internet (maybe my blogs, haha !), Reader Digest magazine, National Geographics magazine, and nonetheless your favorite romantic novels !
Do you think that IELTS should be computerised ?
DO FORGET TO TAKE GOOD REST AND SLEEP BEFORE THE EXAMINATION.
EARNESTLY WISH YOU THE VERY BEST OF LUCK IN YOUR IELTS TEST !