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IELTS Writing Samples

IELTS essay samples (writing task 2), report and letter samples (writing task 1) with Band Scores, marked by IELTS teachers, including comments and suggestions on how to increase your score

IELTS Report, topic: Table describing data on home schooled children (from Target Band 7 book)

This report was written on a topic from “Target Band 7” book (page 44, reprinted with permission).

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task

The table below describes the percentages of home schooled students in SomeCountry in 1999-2004.

Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information shown.

Write at least 150 words

Table describing data on home schooled children, from Target Band 7 book

The table illustrates the proportion of students who were given home schooling in SomeCountry in the period from 1999 to 2004.

From the very start of the period, kindergarten students were home schooled the most and their proportion remained the highest until 2004. Students in grades 1-2 and 5-6 were the least home tutored in 1999 and the figures fluctuated over the period; by the end of 2004 those in grades 1-2 constituted the lowest percentage.

A noticeable trend in home schooled kindergarten students was evident, where their proportion rose steadily from 2.4% to nearly 3% between 1999 and 2004. Similarly, in grade 3-4 also showed a steady upward movement and the rate rose from 1.6% in 1999 to 2.2% by 2004.

Students in the other three grade levels showed some fluctuation between 1999 to 2004. The percentage of home schooled students in grades 1-2 was at 1.5% at the start and dipped to 1.2% in 2000. Afterwards, the figures increased and reached well above 2% in 2004. The proportion of home schooled 5th and 6th graders initially started at 1.5%, then remained constant at 1.3% before finally reaching 2.6% in 2004. Students in 7th and 8th grade were home schooled at a rate of 1.6% in 1999 which remained steady until 2001, and following that climbed up to 2.5% at the end of the period.

Overall, the proportion of home schooled students at all grade levels in 2004 was higher compared to 1999.

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‘the figures for students’ is the right expression to use here

IELTS essay, topic: What are the difficulties of learning a foreign language, and how to overcome them?

Many people believe that learning a foreign language is a very difficult task. What are the most difficult things about learning a foreign language? What is the best way to overcome them? Explain and include your personal experience or knowledge of these problems.

It is true that acquiring new language skills is by no means an easy task. Language learners might encounter several challenges such as unfamiliar accents or grammar structures a foreign language. However, in my opinion, such difficulties can be tackled by a well-rounded education system.

When it comes to languages, it is undeniably crucial to get used to a native accent and intonation for effective communication. However, picking up an accurate accent can be enormously difficult, especially for adult learners because of their lack of language learning ability. If a language learner has an unrecognisable accent and intonation, they would not be understood by native speakers. On top of that, each language has different grammar and typical grammatical sequencing of words. For example, Korean sentences always end with verbs whilst English not, which means that a Korean English-learner should the correct order of words.

Despite the aforementioned difficulties, I strongly believe that everyone can master a foreign language when a couple of feasible steps are taken. Firstly, it is more important than anything to start learning a new language at a young age. By incorporating foreign language programmes in the primary school curriculum, children can easily be exposed to languages of the world and eventually acquire language skills without difficulties. Secondly, the government can financially subsidise schools to run student exchange programmes that help adolescents to get experiences abroad and make friends overseas while improving their foreign language in a way.

In conclusion, I believe that individuals can have difficulties in learning a new language because of different accents and unfamiliar grammar, however, these problems can be overcome by a good quality of education system subsidised by governments.

The writer covered the task by talking about some difficult aspects of learning a new language and steps to overcome them. The ideas are presented in an orderly way, their logical sequencing and the use of paragraphing make this essay easy to follow. Skillful use of linking words and expressions helps the writer maintain coherence and cohesion. Word choice needs some more attention in this essay (see suggested corrections for expressions underlined in blue), however, overall this essay seems to be worthy of IELTS Band 8.

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change the word order to ‘in the process of learning’
‘do’ is the right verb form here because this is referring to ‘sentences’, not ‘English’
‘be aware of’ is a better word choice here
‘delightful’ is the correct word form here