There are as many answers to this question as many so-called experts are present around you.
Students do a lot of net searching as well as go to different IELTS academies/institutes and consult teachers and trainers but unfortunately instead of getting any answer to that question they get more confused and their efforts, time, energy and all the money goes waste.
Things stay out the same and the students remain baffled that why they are unable to raise their score from 6/6.5 to 7, just one or a half band, even after so much search, effort and investment for their quest.
Ultimately, they start blaming British Council, AEO or IDP Australia. But very unfortunately they don’t know the reality of this big mystery that:
Why most students fail to write band 7 essay in IELTS exam.
What’s the truth or what’s the mystery behind this consecutive failure?
I hope, when you are reading this article, you have come to the right place and it will be lot easier to understand where the real problem lies. Ok, let’s understand what are the common problems or mistakes which hinder you from scoring band 7 or above.
Problem No 1: Wrong Approach:
The first and foremost problem is that students land onto a wrong ground while in search for the solution to this problem. They read through a whole lot of information on internet and get bunches of advice from IELTS teachers on how to get seven bands in IELTS writing. Each of them tells that they need to:
- Use some golden and unique vocabulary which can mystify or bewitch the examiner.
- Use uncommon synonyms to create an aura of quality.
- Use very long and difficult sentences to show your ability of using complex structures.
- Give a lot of unique or amazing ideas to hook the examiner.
- Give a background and in-depth knowledge of the issue to exhibit your command on the subject.
- Use lists of band 9 vocabulary/phrases, which have been prepared by many sites/ youtube channels or academies.
- Use templates prepared by them.
And many other such advices cluster up students’ minds with a wrong approach to attempt the question.
Solution:
- A very simple solution to this problem is – no need to struggle for any golden words and hi-fi vocabulary or amazing ideas. Be simple and straight forward.
- IELTS is a language test and not a test of your knowledge. The proof of this fact is that the test is same for a 10th grade student and a doctor or an engineer, for a banker or even for a PhD student. It is obvious how can all these have the same level of knowledge?
- An attempt to use extraordinary vocabulary or uncommon synonyms mostly leads to the wrong use of language for non-natives. Use words and phrases that you are 100% sure of their accuracy and which are appropriate to the task as well as fit in to the place where they are being used.
- A bunch of ideas is not going to impress the examiner. Such an attempt will rather cause confusion in the task for you (to write them in an organized way) as well as for the examiner to understand that what you actually want to say. It spoils your cohesion and coherence.
- One or two simple, obvious and clear ideas which you can explain better in good English will serve the purpose of writing.
- Writing is a means to communicate the ideas and thoughts and you have to show how simple, better and clear you are at this art, instead of creating complexity and complication in thought.
- Examiners are highly educated native speakers and they cannot be mystified or hooked by any means. Therefore, giving extra information or in-depth knowledge on the topic is not going to exhibit anything other than your failure to understand and respond the task well.
- Never ever write long background statements in introduction.
- Don’t use templates and lists of band 9 vocabulary and phrases/sentences provided by so-called teachers or experts on internet. They clearly reveal a memorized and borrowed version of language and not your own language. In an attempt to do so you are very likely to use erroneous structures and incorrect vocabulary in the given task.
- Use structures/vocabulary/phrases and sentences of your own that ensemble to the situation at the spot and are appropriate to the task.
- Similarly writing complex sentences doesn’t mean writing long and complicated sentences. Just join two simple sentences using different types of conjunctions/linkers to show signs of your ability to use compound and complex sentences as well as your craft of discourse variation, coherence and linkage of thoughts/idea
Problem No 2 : No Practice
- Most students either don’t do enough practice of writing or they practice ineffectively. They are looking for some magic tricks and tips.
- Many students watch a bunch of videos on internet, read so many sample essays and take in a lot of advice from others and start believing that they have got enough of IELTS writing. They don’t do enough practice by themselves.
- Others do a lot of practice but unfortunately do it ineffectively, and all goes in vain.
- There are few others or may be many who are just looking for some tricks and tips and templates or golden vocabulary and waste their time, energy and money hopelessly.
Solution:
- There is no magic wand or a wizard’s tricks or tips which can help you getting band 7 plus in writing. Anybody luring you in such things is just wasting your time and money and will make you more desperate.
- It demands a thoughtful study, understanding the purpose and essentials of writing tasks and a good effective practice of various types of both task 1 and task 2.
- After when you have gathered adequate knowledge and understanding of various types/categories of writing tasks you must practice yourself each type of both tasks, effectively as well as sufficiently.
For IELTS Essay question types read the article “IELTS ESSAY CATEGORIES”
- Effective practice means that try to understand what are your common weak areas. Where you actually lack in?
- Different students have different issues. Some may have lexical problems and others might have issues with their grammar. Some may have difficulty in task understanding and response but others can be bad with their cohesion and coherence.
- Therefore if you keep on writing tirelessly without knowing which are your grey areas your efforts are futile.
- For example, even in grammar if there are slight mistakes which you are unable to spot and that is spoiling not only your grammatical structures but also denting your cohesion and coherence. Consequently, you are losing your scores in two of the assessment areas.
- So, when you write check it critically, and if you think you need a teacher for checking and feedback with appropriate guidance you should look for a credible IELTS teacher.
- Unfortunately, many academics/teachers make students do a lot of practice but fail to give them proper feedback/guidance. Students just keep on writing essays upon essays and think that they have done massive practice, but of what use if mistakes and errors are still there where they were in the beginning.
For effective practice and feedback on your writing tasks, you can either write and post your essays here or you can visit our Academy personally for interactive classes with our teachers.
Problem No 3: Neglecting Task 1
- Another major issue which is neither taken into account by the students nor by the teachers is that during rigorous practice of Task 2 (Essay) students forget about Task 1 (Letter/ Report Writing) altogether.
- This, in many cases, has led students to score below 7, when aggregate score was calculated. For example, a student scoring 5/5.5 in Task 1 and 7 in Task 2 will get 6.5 overall score.
- 100% focus of both students and teachers is on Task 2- Essay Writing. Students are taught that if they become expert in essay writing they will write task 1 very easily which is totally false.
- Though assessment criteria are same but both are different tasks and need different approach.
- Task 2 is a discursive writing that requires discussion, opinion, argument, analysis etc. On the other hand, Task 1 is a descriptive composition with reporting feature (in both letter and report writing), summarizing the information and factual descriptions/ statements.
Solution:
- One and only solution is to understand the Task 1 properly and give it a thorough practice time.
- For GT test takers; practice each type of letter (formal/ semi-formal/ informal)
- For Academic test takers; practice each type of graph/illustration in sufficient manner so that you should not loose band score in task 1.
Problem No 4: Lack of understanding of IETS Assessment Criteria
- No doubt every IELTS test taker knows about IELTS assessment criteria because more or less every IELTS website, youtube channels on IELTS and IELTS teachers tell students about four essentials of IELTS marking criteria, i.e. Task Response, Lexica Resource (Vocabulary), Cohesion & Coherence and Grammatical Range and Accuracy, each of them carrying equal weightage.
- But problem lies in its true understanding where both the students as well as many teachers fail to grasp what IELTS really means by these terms. This I am saying because students ask me frequently to explain these marking criteria for clear understanding of the assessment levels.
- If you grasp the real meanings and parameters of these four essentials of assessment and stick to them accordingly throughout your task you can no doubt score 8/ 8 plus bands quite easily.
Solution:
- It is better to read carefully the band descriptors for Writing and Speaking Tasks on the official website of British Council or IELTS
- For detailed understanding of IELTS Marking Criteria for Band 7 and above please read the article:
(HOW TO UNDERSTAND IELTS MARKING CRITERIA)
Problem No 5: Exam Day Mistakes
On exam day students make two common mistakes which cost them a lot. Many students are in fact on Band 7/7.5 Level but these two mistakes constantly keep them on 6/6.5 Band.
Mistake No 1: No Planning
- The biggest of all mistakes is no planning before writing. In a haste or panic under exam stress most students read the task and jump to write randomly.
- Some do a little mental work to plan their task and start of the mark immediately after a small thinking.
- This is totally a wild approach which spoils your task even if you are such a good writer of English.
Solution:
- Don’t think that planning is going to waste your time. If you learn to plan your Essay or Task 1 writing during your practice you will notice that it has big positive effect for your writing task.
- Planning not only keeps you organized (by maintaining your Task Response as well as Cohesion & Coherence) but also saves you a lot of time which can be used for rechecking the essay.
- So, plan your introduction, main body paragraphs and conclusion
- Jot down important phrases/ key words and relevant vocabulary for its appropriate use later while writing fair.
- For task 1 (Academic) note down key features (any similarities/differences, comparisons/contrasts, stages/developments, highest/lowest points, remarkable developments, fluctuations etc) of the illustration; write suitable phrases/words for paraphrasing the task and overview
- For Task 2 (GT – Letter) under line key words/phrases from bullet points and write words/phrases ideas/descriptions for them; be clear about type and purpose of the letter.
- For task 2 generate relevant ideas, scribble down main ideas, points for your thesis, supporting argument, opinion and conclusion summary etc.
Mistake No 2: No Rechecking
I have seen that many students who stick to band 6/6.5 actually write a band 7/7.5 essay or report, but remain below the standard only because they either do not recheck their tasks due to lack of time or they are incapable of spotting their mistakes during rechecking.
Solution:
For a quick lesson take the following points into consideration:
- Carefully check the spellings, letter case (correct use of capital & small letters) and punctuation marks.
- Check whether vocabulary/phrases/collocations etc. used are appropriately and convey clear meaning and you are sure of their correct usage and meaning; if not so the change them accordingly.
- Check whether structures are correct and not too long to confuse the idea/thought; if you doubt about any such sentence(s) try to make it simple and remove any complexity/ambiguity.
- Check if tense, main-verbs, auxiliary-verbs and word order have been used correctly and appropriately to the situation.
- Check if your task response is complete and clear from the very beginning till the end.
- Check that you have presented the main ideas clearly and then supported/elaborated them fully.
- Be sure that your position is clear and you have stated it in the introduction and reiterated it in the conclusion in a different way.
- Look into Cohesion & Coherence and make sure that it has been maintained throughout the task.
- And finally have careful look into your conclusion; it must be a restatement of your thesis plus summary of the whole discussion
Wish you best of luck!