IELTS TIPS from Pathways Education and Training

Written by Matthew Kershaw

IELTS Examiner. General Director of Pathways. 10 years teaching in Vietnam!! 

Pathways Tips #1 - How examiners assess you writing

Did you know? Examiners use detailed performance descriptors when assessing the Writing module. These band descriptors describe performance in four categories: 

1. Task achievement: did you cover all requirements of the task & answer the question/s sufficiently?

2. Coherence and Cohesion: did you write in paragraphs and logically organise information and ideas?

3. Lexical Resource: did you use a wide range of vocabulary flexibly to convey your meaning?

4. Grammatical Resource and Accuracy: did you use a variety of complex structures that are frequently error free?

Pathways Tips #2 - Approaching Writing Task 1

1. Study the graph or diagram carefully before writing

2. Use the general statement and the information in the axis to help you write the introduction

3. Make sure you have written an ove

rall trend

4. Describe the trend using the right grammatical tense and using the most appropriate vocabulary

5. Arrange the information and describe it coherently

6. Report on all main features of the graph or diagram

Pathways Tips #3 - Beginning Writing Task 2

1. Analyse the question carefully. It's usually a problem, a point of view or a statement with two opposing views

2. Check how many parts there are to the question

3. Make a brief plan (e.g. a mindmap or an outline)

4. Plan to write 4-5 paragraphs

Pathways Tips #4 - Vocabulary

1. Increase your range of core vocabulary based on commonly occurring IELTS topics

2. Increase your speaking score in the IELTS speaking module by using phrasal verbs (for Parts 1 & 2), along with collocations in both the speaking (Part 3) and the writing (Task 2) modules

3. With any vocabulary, usage needs to be natural. If you learn some phrases and try to ‘fit’ them into your speaking or writing to get a higher score without knowing them properly (such as idioms), it may sound unnatural and you may make mistakes, which will be noticed by the examiner

4. Increasing your vocabulary can help you recognise and understand a larger range of words in the listening and reading modules

An online course called 'IELTS Booster', developed by Pathways E&T, is coming soon and will focus on increasing learners vocabulary range and developing better pronunciation of individual words and common phrases!!

By the way, if you need detailed feedback on each of the IELTS skill modules criteria, then come and try a Mock (practice) IELTS test with a real IELTS examiner at Pathways Education and Training.

To read more information about IELTS tips, please join us at Pathways fanpage on facebook (click "like") or Pathways IELTS page (click "add friend").

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