IELTS-Blog

This is a model response to a Writing Task 2 topic from High Scorer’s Choice IELTS Practice Tests book series (reprinted with permission). This answer is likely to score IELTS Band 9.

Set 3 Academic book, Practice Test 12

Writing Task 2

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

With the improvements in today’s health care, society has to care for more and more elderly people.

Do you feel that society will be able to cope with the increase in numbers of elderly people today and how can it be managed?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge or experience.

You should write at least 250 words.

Answer

In current society, the life expectancy in western countries has increased significantly. Also, fewer babies are being born, causing the relative percentage of elderly people to increase. These people have to be taken care of, causing the question to rise whether this number of elderly people can be cared for.

When people grow older, they can also develop more health issues, resulting in more visits to doctors and hospitals, and an increased usage of pharmaceuticals. Due to the current large numbers of elderly people, the pressure put onto health care systems is increasing. In many western countries, the state provides most of the health care system. Therefore with increasing numbers of old people, higher percentages of state funding have to be allocated to health care and this could cause shortfalls in other areas, for example education. This change in the distribution of money can therefore impact society negatively.

Society should be able to handle these changes. Governments will have been able to predict the changing demographic situations in their countries and plan accordingly. This might indeed lead to other sectors in society having money taken away from them, but caring for the elderly is one of the key responsibilities of today’s governments. For the future, it might be necessary to ensure that an extra insurance charge is levied on people’s salaries in order that any future financial shortfall is met. This would be unpopular, but would allow governments to have the necessary funds available.

In conclusion, society today and in the future should be well able to deal with caring for their elderly. It is only a question of careful long-term forecasting and planning.

Go here for more IELTS Band 9 Essays

The video you are about to watch features a Polish student, Magda, who is answering questions from Speaking Test 18 in “High Scorer’s Choice” IELTS Practice Tests book series.

Magda is doing a full simulated IELTS Speaking test with an examiner, who is asking her typical IELTS Speaking test questions. This video shows you what happens on the test day in the real examination room.

IELTS Speaking Test has 3 parts.

In Part 1 you should expect personal questions on familiar topics, for instance about your job or studies, your home, your family, etc.

Part 2 is different, because you receive a single topic to talk about for 1 to 2 minutes, with 4 bullet points you should cover in your speech. Another difference between Part 2 and the other parts is that in Part 2 you get 1 minute preparation time and you can write down some ideas to talk about. This doesn’t happen in Part 1 or Part 3.

Part 3 is a longer discussion where the examiner asks you questions related to Part 2 topic. You are expected to give longer, more elaborate answers and talk in-depth about the topics your examiner brings up.

Here is how you can learn from this Speaking test video

1. Get familiar with everything that happens in the Speaking test. It will help you feel prepared when it’s your turn.

2. Listen to the questions the examiner asks and how Magda answers them. Then think about what YOU would say in response to these questions.

3. Spot Magda’s mistakes and avoid them when you speak.

4. Go over Examiner’s Feedback below to learn how he rated Magda’s performance and why (he also points out some of her mistakes!)

5. You can even use this as a Listening exercise, and switch on subtitles on YouTube to understand every word on the recording.

Watch the video on YouTube here:

Examiner’s Feedback

This section shows you what goes on in the examiner’s mind when he rates a Speaking test. Make sure you read this before looking at the scores he gave Magda in every criterion, because this explains the reasons she got those scores.

Speaking Test, Part 1 – 0:22

In section 1, Magda showed that she had a good and confident command of English. Although she was occasionally a little hesitant (due to nervousness and to access ideas rather than language it seemed), she spoke mostly fluently and communicated what she wanted to say coherently all the way through. She also used some humour at appropriate times to express her feelings. Magda had a good resource of lexis and she only occasionally used an awkward word or phrase (i.e. “fast-pacing”). There were also some examples of higher-level language, i.e. “holistic view”). Magda’s grammar usage was varied and accurate. She had an almost negligible Polish accent, which did not affect communication in any way. Magda’s answers were slightly short. She just achieved the time required for section 1, but developing her answers more would have been more impressive.

Speaking Test, Part 2 – 4:24

Magda spoke clearly, coherently and fluently in section 2. She mostly spoke quite slowly, but this is not a problem – people talk at different speeds. Magda also again used humour to add to what she wanted to say. Her vocabulary range was again very good, though I felt that “and” was used too many times to help develop her monologue. Although it was not wrong, it sounded a bit awkward. Magda’s grammatical range was again good and accurate, though not without error, i.e. “vacations” and “how much sacrifices”. Magda’s accent was again non-intrusive and allowed excellent communication.

Speaking Test, Part 3 – 6:51

Magda produced a good section 3, though her fluency was affected by the more demanding questions. Her coherence was not really affected and she communicated her ideas without too many problems and she provided varied and intelligent answers. Magda’s lexical resource was again good and she showed she could access higher-level vocabulary, i.e. “psychological and physiological problems” and “impact significantly”. Her use of the conjunction “moreover” was well used too. There were, however, some moments of awkwardness as well, i.e. “consume themselves in frugal lifestyle” and “retiring people”. Magda’s grammatical range was again appropriately varied and her accuracy was very good, though not without error, i.e. “life expectancy is much, much bigger”, “support system” and “the least problems”. As in the previous sections, Magda’s pronunciation was excellent.

Magda’s IELTS Speaking score

The marking of the IELTS Speaking Test is done in 4 parts.

Fluency and Coherence 7
Lexical Resource 7
Grammatical Range and Accuracy 7
Pronunciation 9

Estimated IELTS Speaking Band 7.5

Need more Speaking tests with Examiner’s feedback? Find them in High Scorer’s Choice book series.

If you’d like to get your own Speaking evaluated, you can – go here to learn how.