IELTS advantage disadvantage essay

October 10, 2022June 14, 2022 by Ray IELTS Focus

Model answer for an IELTS advantage disadvantage (outweigh) essay.

One of the most difficult essay types for many band 6 students is the ‘outweigh’ essay, which is an advantage disadvantage essay that is asking your opinion about which side you think is stronger.

The keyword in the task is ‘outweigh’. So you must cover the advantage and the disadvantage in this essay and clearly state your opinion. Do not only write about the advantages. you will need to cover both sides for a higher score in task response.

IELTS two part question essay on homes

October 10, 2022January 13, 2022 by Ray IELTS Focus

Model answer for a two-part question essay on homes and housing.

This task was in the Cambridge IELTS 16 book about learning the background of ones home.

At first, you must look at the general topic, which in this case is about housing, then analyse the task to find out what you need to write about and the type of essay it is. In this case, it has two questions in the instruction words so this is a two-part question essay (direct questions essay). Take a look at how I have structured this and given specific examples to support the main ideas.

IELTS writing task 1: Life cycle of a honeybee

August 18, 2021August 12, 2021 by Ray IELTS Focus

Natural process diagram in IELTS.

In IELTS writing task 1 process diagrams you will often see a diagram on how something is made or how something works with all the steps included.

Something that used to be quite common in IELTS was a natural process diagram such as the lifecycle of a butterfly, a honey bee or a weather cycle showing evaporation and rainfall. It’s still worth practicing writing about natural processes in case one comes up again in the exam.

IELTS model answer: newspapers and books in the future

December 21, 2021April 19, 2021 by Ray IELTS Focus

ielts model answer

IELTS opinion essay model answer.

Here is a model answer based on an essay topic from the Cambridge IELTS 15 textbook on the role of newspapers and books in the future. It’s an opinion essay and in this type of essay, you need to clearly state your opinion throughout the response.

The answer is quite long at over 300 words so I would advise aiming for under 300 words as you will only have 40 minutes to write the essay.

Unusual IELTS speaking part 1 topics

June 3, 2020February 6, 2020 by Ray IELTS Focus

Tricky or strange IELTS part 1 speaking topics.

Part 1 of the IELTS speaking test is actually the easiest. The topics are nearly always about you and your experiences. Usually, the topics are pretty easy everyday topics such as Job/studies, hobbies, food, travel, hometown, music, daily routine and so on. The examiner asks between 9 to 12 questions around 3 topics and this part of the test lasts around 5 minutes.

However, sometimes the examiner might ask you questions around an unusual topic. This is quite normal as the examiner wants to check whether you have memorised answers to the most common topics and needs to evaluate your true ability. Do not memorise stock answers as the examiner is trained to spot these and you could lose marks.

8 things that could lower your IELTS writing score

November 20, 2022June 13, 2019 by Ray IELTS Focus

Things to avoid in IELTS essays.

Updated: Nov 19th, 2022

The essay writing section of IELTS is formal. This is the same for the academic writing task 1 reports, so you must use the right register. You could lose marks in vocabulary or grammar if you are writing informally, using idioms, or using memorised stock phrases.

In IELTS general writing task 1 you will sometimes get an ‘informal’ letter to write, so obviously in that specific case, you will write the letter in an informal register.

You may not lose a band score if you are doing just one of these things below but if you are making a combination of errors then it could be the cause of being stuck at band 6 or 6.5.

IELTS Writing task 1: Line graph with a future trend

February 17, 2023May 15, 2017 by Ray IELTS Focus

IELTS graphs with future trends.

Updated: Feb 17th 2023

Sometimes in IELTS academic writing task 1 you may be presented with a graph showing a future prediction.

In this case, you need to use the future tense with some specific academic phrases. Let’s have a look at the grammar needed in case you get one of these in the exam. Note that the data in this task is dynamic, which means it changes over time.