IELTS Writing: a common mistake

Before we tend to begin, there is something as well you should know. In the recent post about the difference between formal and informal writing styles there was a mistake. Although it was caught and fixed almost immediately on the website, the erroneous version was sent to your emails before we could stop it. To clarify, the words “children”, “many” and “much” are formal equivalents of informal “kids”, “a lot of” and “loadsof”. My apologies, if the previous email confused you.

And now to the common mistake within the IELTS Writing test. As you may be on familiar terms with, there are 2 tasks, Writing Task 1 and Task 2, and for both Academic and General Training modules Task 1 is shorter (150 words) than Task 2 (250 words). Often people decideto write the Task 2 first, before writing Task 1. No problem so far, but we are getting to the really important bit.

It is essential that you pay attention to the Answer Sheet and write your answers in the right places. There are 2 marked spaces on the Answer Sheet that you get in the Writing test, one says “Task 1″ and the other says “Task 2″. To avoid confusing the examiner who will check your work, you should make sure that the the essay is written under “Task 2″ and the report (for Academic) or the letter (for General Training) - under Task 1.


If worse comes to worst and you’ve mixed the two spaces, don’t panic. First, finish writing your tasks - wherever you’ve started to write, don’t worry about the incorrect places, just deal with the contents and the paragraphing as usual. After the Writing test is over you can ask staff at the test center to affixa note to your work explaining where each task is. It will help the examiner locate the right task and your score won’t suffer.

Good luck with your exam!