This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, episode 1515. why am I scoring six on IELTS Writing Task 1?
Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English. downloaded more than 35 million times. with examiner-trained IELTS whiz Aubrey Carter. and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer.
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Do you find yourself scoring 6 or 6.5 on your IELTS writing?
When you just need that seven, what gives?
Today, find out exactly what you're doing that is holding you back from scoring your seven on task one.
Your English is strong. You can hold conversations, handle meetings, even read reports. but sometimes you still hesitate before speaking. or your English feels a little too formal, not quite natural.
That's the final gap, fluency and connection.
Want to know what's holding you back? Take our fluency quiz.
In just two minutes, you'll discover your English level and how you can improve it.
Start now at allearsenglish.com slash fluency score.
That's allearsenglish.com slash f l u e n c y s c o r Number E.
Hello Aubrey, how's it going today? Hi Lindsay, I am great.
I have a question for you. Alright, I'm ready.
When is the last time that you wrote someone a letter?
That's a good question. I haven't written one in a while, but I did get a lot of cards from friends in couple of weeks.
So they wrote me letters. No, like condolences cards.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Gotcha. But even then it wouldn't be like a full letter, right?
This is different. Yeah, it wasn't a full letter.
Different from what would be written in a card.
It's so rare anymore that we actually write a letter.
It's so true. What about you? It's just so rare.
Yeah, it's so true. I remember in middle school, we used to write our friends letters or crushes. it was a whole thing, at least I did.
Absolutely. And then when, like, I remember I went to college and I had several friends that Then moved away and that was how we stayed in touch.
And then I went to Belgium to be a nanny and I was writing and mailing letters all the time.
It's so quaint. Sort of a lost art. It really is.
I think instant messenger and then text messages and then letter writing just went out the window.
So how does this relate to IELTS, Aubrey?
Yeah, so for those of you who are preparing for general training, you will have to write a letter.
And this is likely something that you're not doing very often.
We got a great question today about IELTS writing.
I'm excited to break it down because this listener is not the only one that's in this situation.
I'm sure of it. Yeah, I'll go ahead. Yeah, I'd love to.
This is from Mikhail listening in Spotify.
And by the to listen if you want to participate in our amazing polls.
After every episode, we post a good question.
You get to make your voice heard. but only if you're over there listening in Spotify.
Absolutely. Yes. Right. answer our polls, leave your questions there.
It's a great place to send in questions as well.
You got it. So here's what Mikhail said.
I'm stuck with a low score in writing. I got 6.5, two times straight.
Other parts are higher than seven or seven or higher.
But writing is my Achilles heel. So what should I do?
Aubrey, what a good question. It is such a good question, especially because we know that a lot of our listeners out there are in the same boat.
You might be getting higher scores on other parts of the exam.
Maybe you've taken IELTS and scored or 6.5, you're so close, but you can't get that rating seven.
We are going to dive into this today to help you know how you can push your score higher and get the seven on writing that you need.
Yep. I feel like this is the question that 75% of our audience members are asking.
So we're going to answer it today. So go ahead and hit that follow button to get more from IELTS Energy.
We publish twice a week. true expert advice that we learned from a former examiner.
Um, Aubrey, you are fully trained in this.
We know exactly what we're doing here. So come back and get more from IELTS energy.
Exactly. And you especially want to hit follow now because this is part one of a two-part series of We're breaking this up in task one and task two. because it is different advice.
There are different strategies you need in order to get the score on these different essays.
So today, whether you are taking general training IELTS and writing a letter, or academic IELTS.
We are going to share the strategies you need for both of these exams to get that seven or higher.
Okay, so then today, getting into task one.
So the question of the day, is why do we think that Mikhail and other students are scoring that six or that 6.5 when they want that seven?
How do we improve to that seven on task one?
Yes. So we're giving you some specific things for each score.
So first, we're going to dive into the task response score.
And often what we're seeing students that are scoring six or 6.5 and can't quite get that seven. and we're talking about general training first here, is inconsistent tone in your essay.
Depending on who you're writing this letter to, it will sound very different.
If you're writing to a friend or a family member, that letter will have totally different vocabulary and sound very different than a formal letter that maybe is to an airplane. like a letter of complaint, an airline.
Yeah, I would imagine that tone is something that kind of flies below the radar for a lot of students within their practice and their prep.
Maybe they don't think about how important it is to match the question with the tone of our writing.
Absolutely. Or what I'll see when I am giving feedback on essays is that students will use some informal language when writing to a friend or family member, but they won't stay consistent.
They'll then use some very formal vocabulary or very formal phrasing or linking phrases.
And right there in the scoring system, you're told that your tone must be consistent and appropriate.
Appropriate and consistent. Those are two different things, right?
And you might need to write a semi-formal letter.
Imagine if you're writing to a neighbor, Maybe you're asking a neighbor to watch your pets or water your plants while you're on vacation. or maybe your coworker you know well, this will be a different tone as well.
It will be a little bit more of a mix. between how formally you would speak to a very close friend and how formally you would write to If it's to someone you have never met or to an organization.
Yeah, exactly. Organization, a complaint letter to an airline is an example of a formal tone we might use.
So again, we need vocabulary and phrases that match that tone. consistently and appropriately.
Exactly. To score seven or higher, this is vital. for your task response score, but that's not all, right?
For your task response score to score seven or higher, You also have to fully address all three bullet points that you are provided with, And you need two separate ideas for each of these bullet points. in order for the examiner to see that as fully addressed.
So often what we'll see is students will provide one brief detail for one bullet point, and maybe a lot of details for the other two bullet points, and this won't get you that seven for the task response score.
Wow. So tricky. IELTS is so tricky. We really have to know what they're looking for on the exam, Aubrey.
Exactly. It's vital that you understand the scoring system and know what the examiner is looking for for each of these four different scores.
So let's dive in now to the vocabulary score. and share what we see students do most often that is keeping them from scoring a seven for vocabulary.
So what it is, is not having enough high scoring vocab.
So you need to use words that are less common.
Right, Aubrey? Exactly, right? Even if an examiner is seeing the same words used really often, then they're considered common, they're banned six or lower.
So for an informal letter, you need idiomatic language. slang, idioms, phrasal verbs to hit that informal tone.
And for more formal letters, you need that topic specific, impressive vocabulary. similar to what you'll use on a Task 2 essay.
And your letter could be about anything addressed to anyone.
So you just like for task two, you're needing a lot of high scoring vocabulary for many different topics.
And then the other thing that goes wrong with vocabulary is that we repeat the same word.
So we don't want to use the same language that comes from the bullet points that We want to instead restate it in a different way.
Right, Aubrey? Exactly. IELTS test takers do this a lot where you have the bullet points, and they're using that vocabulary in their essays.
This is not going to get you seven or higher.
You need to restate that. You need to provide your own details, your own vocabulary. to show the examiner that you have seven or higher, you know, band seven vocabulary.
Yeah, and then repeating actual words, using the same words over and over and over We don't do that to score high.
We use synonyms, we paraphrase, we don't repeat.
Exactly. And this is the case both for linking phrases and vocabulary throughout your essay.
Avoid repetition. Right? Show the examiner how much vocabulary you have by paraphrasing the sentence.
If you can't think of an exact synonym, restate how you would say it in order to not repeat vocabulary.
Yeah, and I think the one score that maybe confuses students or they really do need expert advice on Is cohesion coherence?
What does that even mean, Aubrey? I know exactly.
A lot of this is about the organization of your essay.
So the best way to do this for your general training essay is to answer each bullet point in its own paragraph.
This makes it really well organized for the examiner.
If you have information about different bullet points all in one paragraph, and then you jump back and forth, this would be a low cohesion coherence score.
Yeah, because it would take a lot of work for the person scoring it to go and find all your answers.
And if you make it hard on the examiner, you don't score high.
Exactly. And then it's just disorganized, right?
So this score would be low, but also. in these letters, it does feel a little more strange to use linking phrases, transition phrases, just like in your speaking answers. you have to include them and it won't feel as natural.
You need linking phrases to transition between ideas in order to score seven or higher on cohesion coherence.
And of course, when it comes to choosing which linking phrase we're going to use, we look at the tone again.
So for informal, we might say for what it's worth.
On the other hand, but then if it's a formal statement, Letter.
Hence, consequently, things like that. Exactly right.
There are so many linking phrases that are too formal. for an informal letter and there are some that are too informal. for this formal letter to like a business or an organization.
So you also have to think about the formality of your linking phrases.
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Okay, Aubrey. So we've talked about the letter, the general letter, but most, I'd say like 60% of students are taking academic IELTS.
Yes, a lot of you listening to the podcast, you are preparing for the academic exam.
And this is very difficult task one. This is a type of writing that nobody really does, or at least we don't do very often. in our day-to-day lives.
So you need strategies for this essay. I love it.
So task response score, what is the first mistake that you're probably making If you're getting a 6 or a 6.5.
Yeah, often it's that you're not covering all the key information.
Or you might be covering everything, even information that doesn't matter, numbers that don't really change.
You're cramming them all in there. The examiner needs to see that you can look at these charts, graphs, process diagrams, and assess what's the most important information that needs to be described.
So what's the strategy that we recommend?
Yeah. So we recommend that you circle the highest second highest and lowest numbers for a static essay that shows sort of a snapshot in time of information.
Or if it's a graph that's showing a change over time, maybe dates from 2002 to 2024, and how information changed over that time, then you're going to be circling the biggest increases and decreases.
And those are what you will describe in your essay.
Yeah, and of course we want to keep in mind we're doing that circling because we know that we can't describe every number. or every detail.
So we need to know what are we going to leave out and what are we going to include? exactly right and the other issue is that you might be providing inaccurate unclear or just missing the overall trend.
And in order to score seven or higher on an academic essay, you have to have this overall trend.
This is a statement. in your introduction that shows overall, in general, what is happening in these charts or in this diagram.
Yes, I love it. And then when it comes to vocab, Aubrey, what are we doing wrong?
Similar to task 1, often the problem is not enough high-scoring vocabulary.
You need less common words to describe numbers, right?
So for example, instead of saying lowest, You need other options.
Most paltry, you know, least remarkable. these more impressive, higher scoring words and phrases.
We teach these in Three Keys IELTS so that you have an arsenal of words to describe numbers.
Yeah, I think that single word is probably responsible for a lot of high scores from students in our course because we've taught that word.
It's like a weapon, right? A back pocket tool. combined with other things that you need, strategies, vocabulary that will help increase your score.
Okay, exactly. But not only that, just like with task one, you need to avoid repetition.
So don't use language directly from the topic or the charts and graphs.
Whenever possible, restate it, use synonyms, paraphrase, state it another way to show the examiner. how much high-scoring vocabulary you know.
Yeah, so just be really careful. Take a look at your past exams and see if maybe you were repeating vocabulary or you weren't using, you know, again, the right tone, not enough high scoring vocab.
Yes, vocabulary has to be used correctly in context.
And this leads us straight into our last score here, cohesion, cohesion.
Yes. So, first of all, you need organization for this academic essay. right?
A good strategy is to divide the information in half in a logical way.
This will look different depending on the charts graphs that you're provided.
But there will be a way that makes sense to divide that information in two.
Then you know what will go in each of your body paragraphs.
So one half of the argument or whatever it is, the piece that you're going to articulate is the first paragraph and the second part is the second paragraph.
Exactly, right? And this just needs to be in a way that makes sense.
So if you have a change over time essay, maybe two products increase in sales. and two decrease.
That's how you would divide it. In the first body paragraph, you'll describe the products that increased and in the second body paragraph describe what decreased.
It just needs to be logical. so that the organization it makes sense to the examiner Yeah, and of course, we need good transition phrases for the cohesion coherence score on task two as well. about that, Aubrey?
Yeah. So of course you need to link ideas, right?
You need to transition between your ideas, but it's also important that you introduce your body paragraphs. with linking phrases.
If you just all of a sudden start talking about the information in the chart that's not cohesive. right it's not well organized so for example if your paragraph will be about sales of seasonal ski passes.
Maybe your introductory sentence could be, regarding seasonal passes, sales started at a meager $1,500 in 2002, before skyrocketing to $25,000 in 2009.
So you see that not only am I reporting the numbers, specific numbers with specific dates, I'm introducing it with a high scoring linking phrase.
Yeah, that's a great way to do it. Introduce the topic with regarding.
Regarding X and then you get it all in showing the growth there, right?
Meager. And skyrocket all super high level vocabulary.
Right? This is the type of vocabulary you need and the type of linking phrases you need to introduce your ideas.
And then maybe your second body paragraph could start with turning to daily passes, right?
And you'll start describing the other information.
I love it. Aubrey, what is our takeaway?
I feel like we've explained very clearly why our listeners might be getting a six or 6.5 when they need that seven in writing.
Yeah. If you're having trouble, scoring seven on outs writing.
First of all, know that you're not alone, right?
We hear this a lot from students. This is a struggle.
The main thing is you need to understand the scoring system.
This is why we talked about this, tying it to those scores. what the examiner is looking for to give you a seven or higher on these individual scores.
And once you have that, then you're with your practice, you can know that you can get a seven or higher on day.
All right, great stuff. And thank you to our listener, Mikhail, who asked this question.
We love getting questions, guys. Send them to support at allearsenglish.com.
All right, perfect. And be sure to hit follow in part two, we will cover task two, right?
Because Task one is just half of your writing exam.
You also need to know what might be holding you back from that seven on task two. all right looking forward to that one aubry you have a good day talk soon thanks bye bye Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.
Hit subscribe now and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglish.com slash myscore.
