IELTS Writing - How to avoid getting penalized or disqualified

Did you know that your marks are taken away for writing a too short essay, letter or report in IELTS? How about this: depending on the length of the essay you can loose more or less marks. Let me explain: if you have written 240 words (instead of required 250 for essay), you will loose less marks than if you have written only 200 words.

The lesson here is: even if you don’t have enough time to write 250 words, try to write as much as you can, because then you will loose less marks. Obviously the best is to aim at 250-265 words to avoid penalty for length.

Did you know that if you write an essay/letter/report but not on the topic you were given, your work can be disqualified? Yes, that’s true and here is another sure way to loose all the marks for writing: memorizing. The examiners are not fools; they are trained professionals and can easily spot a memorized work.

The lesson here is: don’t take any chances, write an essay on the topic you were given, even if you don’t have brilliant ideas about it. It doesn’t matter how original you are, as long as your writing makes sense and follows the rules of IELTS essay.

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