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IELTS Writing Test
1 Test Overview
IELTS writing test is crucial for candidates; its mark takes a quarter weight in the overall band. It is in both Academic and General Training versions, but for Academic and General Training test-takers, the assignments are different. The two versions focus on different types of candidates: the academic tasks are relevant to formal writing for academic purposes, whereas general tasks are everyday life's personal or semi-formal writing.
Although writing contents are separate between academic and general versions, the tests' structure and format are very similar. The common points are:
Test time is 60 minutes.
The test consists of 2 tasks.
1st task takes a 1/3 score.
1st task should be more than 150 words.
Suggest finishing 1st task in 20 minutes.
2nd task takes a 2/3 score.
2nd task should be more than 250 words.
Suggest finishing 2nd task in 40 minutes.
The general writing task 1 is a letter, whereas academic writing task 1 describes a table or chart. It's easy to tell the difference. However, task 2 of both tests are short essays that may seem alike in topic or question style. Don't be confused by the similarity. The academic test expects your formal writing. Instead, the general test needs your flexible or personal expression, even if the question is very close.
It is why you have to prepare the writing module precisely according to your version if you don't want to waste time and effort. Understand your job is the first step to success.
Examiners judge your IELTS writing tasks under four aspects. The video enplanes how to write a 7 band essay guided by the criteria one by one. It's an excellent example to understand how to score an IELTS writing task.
task achievement
coherence and cohesion
lexical resource
grammatical range and accuracy
More IELTS writing background materials, like format, score, and sample questions are at IELTS official website.
2 Academic and General Writing:
1. Academic Writing
The IELTS Academic Writing module is designed to test candidates' ability to write clear and formal English, commonly required in an academic context. The test consists of two tasks that you must answer in one hour. If you only finish one of them, you don't have any score.
The two tasks usually focus on separate aspects of academic writing. Still, examiners rate your scripts with similar criteria, such as how accurately to address the task, how to organize your essay, the range of your vocabulary, and your grammar's correctness.
A high writing score needs you to organize ideas well, write accurately, and use rich vocabulary with correct grammar. Considering that task 1 contributes 1/3 score to the final writing mark, you should allocate test time accordingly. If wasting too much time on Task 1, you may ruin Task 2 in a narrow time frame.
The IELTS General Training writing module tests the ability to write about practical issues on common topics of personal interest, everyday life, or campus activity. The tasks usually ask candidates to offer information or suggestions, say likes or dislikes, or present opinions or views.
In the module, you should finish two writing tasks in one hour. Task 1 is a 150 words short letter and contributes 1/3 points to the final writing mark so that you may allocate less time on it accordingly. If you waste time on Task 1, you won't have enough time to complete Task 2. Then you won't have a chance to get a good mark. Besides, you have to finish both tasks to accept the writing band.
As similar as Academic writing, examiners assess the General writing tasks by criteria in four aspects: right understanding and response to tasks, organizing essay logically, a good range of vocabulary, and correct grammar.
In a real IELTS writing test, the chance to see exactly repeated questions is meager; however, similar or near topics occur in test sheets from time to time. Getting new writing questions and practicing them is a typical method to prepare either academic or general IELTS writing.
The real writing questions can help candidates to mock test scenario and familiarise with the exam style. On the other hand, practice them accumulates hot topics that may reoccur in the future test, killing two birds with one stone.
This section presents each writing task with one real question. They are from memories of recent IELTS test-takers or the Internet. We only keep the latest writing questions here. To get previous writing questions, please select related links.
Nowadays, people believe that governments should invest taxpayers’ money in healthcare, while others believe that money should be used in other areas. Discuss both points of view and give your opinion. Keywords: government; health Type: Discussion Tested on: 2024-08-24