8 Most Common IELTS Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

8 Most Common IELTS Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

Everyone makes mistakes, but when it comes to the International English Language Testing System exam, these mistakes can cost you a lot.

Students are tested in terms of listening, reading, writing, and speaking. This test also takes up a lot of time, with reading and writing modules in the morning, and a speaking section taken in the afternoon.

With so much piled up, it’s only natural that students fumble along the way and make mistakes. But there are certain pitfalls that you can avoid if you pay attention and are aware enough to recognize them before you are trapped.

In this article, we have compiled a list of the some of the most common mistakes made by students in IELTS exam and how you can avoid them:

1. More is less

A very common mistake that students make is to answer in more words than necessary or instructed. If the task instructs you to now write in, say, more than 3 words; answering in 4 words or more can definitely cost you marks.

2. Less is Less

In the writing portion of the exam, the length is extremely crucial. When instructions mention a minimal number of words, it means that any work shorter than the required will be penalized. It can seem obvious at first but it is a common mistake made in the rush of the exam and must be avoided.

3. Longer essays without substance mean nothing

Some students may be under the impression that the lengthier their essay, the more marks they stand to score. This is a misconception. It is a myth surrounding IELTS, not only senseless but also dangerous. Writing a long essay can indirectly cost you marks if you veer off topic too much in your quest of increasing the word count.

It can also increase your chances of making more and more grammatical errors.

4. Changing the subject is unacceptable

It may happen that you are asked to write on a topic you don’t understand or know nothing about. To avoid the disaster of missing a whole task, you might decide to write on a slightly, or entirely, different topic. No matter how beautiful the submitted work is, the wrong topic will ultimately result in zero score.

Another similar pitfall is to omit parts of the given topic or ignoring the guidelines. Every point in the topic has to be covered in the writing task because the examiners will be actually counting them and looking for them.

5. A good memory can get you in trouble

Some students decide to take advantage of topics which have a high probability of being asked again in other years by memorising whole essays about them. This is a terrible mistake because the examiners are trained to look for memorized essays and have firm instructions to disqualify such works on the spot.

6. Accent in not important, Pronunciation is 

IELTS being a test for non-native English speakers can’t penalize people for having an accent. The problem here is that not everyone knows the difference between speaking with an accent and mispronouncing the words. No matter how ‘English’ your accent is, unless and until you pronounce the works correctly, you will lose marks.

7. Ideas aren’t as important as presentation

Many students harbour the mistaken belief that expressing the wrong ideas, orally or in written, can harm their score. The truth is that no idea can be completely wrong and it’s not the ideas in particular that you are being marked for, it’s the way you describe them.

8. Connective words

Using more and more connective words in not always good. Students know that one of the marking criteria of an essay is its coherence and cohesion. To express cohesion, students use lots of connective words.

This is not the correct way to go about writing a good essay. Overuse of connective words is a known problem, one that can be easily spotted and penalized by the examiners.

Students should remember that one of the best ways of avoiding unnecessary trouble is to be aware of it. If you remain cautious of the aforementioned pitfalls and practise enough before the exam, you might be better off than if you had resorted to such cheap tricks to fool the examiner.

Familiarity with the paper structure and procedure of the test will build up your confidence and that will ultimately reflect in your score.

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