How to Score Lower in Your IELTS Speaking and Writing

1. Use “gonna” and “wanna” in your responses

IELTS will assess a formal domain of English in both written and spoken communication. Therefore, candidates are encouraged to use more advanced vocabulary. To score lower in both IELTS Academic and General Training, you can use non-standard English words such as “gonna” and “wanna” in your responses. “Wanna” is a short form of “want to” or “want a”. “Gonna” is mainly used in American English which is the informal form of “going to”.

2. Use Simple Present Tense all the time

You can use Simple Present or Present Simple all the time to maintain a low profile in your IELTS score, particularly in Speaking Part 2 which usually provides a prompter for a story-telling activity in Past Tense.

In fact, IELTS assessment expects candidates to demonstrate their ability to use a wide range of tenses. Two IELTS candidates from Germany and India used a total of 4 advanced tenses (i.e. Present Continuous Tense, Present Perfect Continuous Tense, Past Continuous Tense, and Past Perfect Tense) to help them achieve band 9.0 in speaking. You will not follow them, will you?

3. Write less than the expected word count

It is no longer a secret that producing less than 150 words in Writing Task 1 and producing less than 250 words in Writing Task 2 can result in a lower score in your IELTS Writing. Successful candidates often write more than the expected word count and the excessive word count is approximately 10% of the original one (i.e. around 165 words for Writing Task 1 and 275 words for Writing Task 2). Who says less is more? In IELTS Writing, less is less.

4. Put your main idea in the end of your responses

IELTS genres encourage international standards of formatting where the main idea is generally placed in the beginning, followed by elaboration. In writing, you can put the main idea as the last sentence of the body paragraph. In speaking, you can present the details first and then give the main answer in the end. Just beat around the bush – do not get to the point.

A research conducted by Planet English Online suggests that almost every IELTS candidate expect a higher score in writing and speaking. How about you?

Author: Norma Sholikah

Supported by: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/