Examiner's Guide To Marking

An ex-examiner's
guide to the
IELTS Band
Descriptors
Shelly Cornick
An Ex-Examiner's Guide to the IELTS Band Descriptors: Contents
Table Of Contents
Introduction 3
What are the band descriptors? 6
IELTS tests two di erent types of skills 7
The Public Band Descriptors 8
Task Response 10
Not addressing the question fully 11
Not having a clear and consistent position 14
Not extending ideas enough 15
Using fake statistics as an example 16
Over-generalising 18
5 Most Common Task Response Errors: Summary 20
Coherence and Cohesion 23
No clear topic sentence in a paragraph 24
Poor use of transition signals 26
Poor progression in a paragraph 28
Unclear referencing 30
Parts of the essay cannot be understood 31
Top 5 IELTS Coherence & Cohesion Errors: Summary 32
Lexical Resource 35
The Five Most Common Lexical Resource Errors 37
Poor paraphrasing/Over-paraphrasing 37
Focusing on one word instead of collocations 38
www.myieltsclassroom.com
Page 1
An Ex-Examiner's Guide to the IELTS Band Descriptors: Contents
Dependent prepositions 39
Changing transition signals/opinion language 40
Spelling Errors 41
Top 5 Lexical Resource Errors: Summary 43
Grammatical Range and Accuracy 46

No evidence of C1+ sentence structures 49
Not having a wide enough range of sentences 51
Not enough error-free sentences 53
Having sentences that contain too many clauses 58
Poor punctuation 59
Top 5 Grammatical Range & Accuracy Errors: Summary 62
Final Advice 63
My IELTS Classroom 64
Page 2
Introduction: An Ex-Examiner's Guide to the IELTS Band Descriptors
Introduction
Hey! The amount of information available online about IELTS has exploded in recent years.
When I started making the lessons for My IELTS Classroom back in 2015, there were only a
handful of IELTS teachers with YouTube channels and websites, but now there are literally
thousands. But, with everybody online claiming that they are an IELTS “expert”, how can you
tell the good lessons from the bad?
As an ex-IELTS examiner, I see materials posted on Facebook and YouTube every day that
would do more to damage a student’s score than improve it. I can tell in an instant if a
teacher has genuine experience preparing students for the exam, or if they are simply
trying to cash in on the fact that IELTS is so life-changing that students are often desperate
to pass.
Worse, much of the information online seems to contradict itself, which leaves students
asking the same questions again and again:
here do I need to put my opinion in a Discuss Both Sides essay? In every part of the
W
essay
Do I need to cover the other view in an agree/disagree essay? Only if you want more
than a 7.0
Can I use fake statistics in my example? No!
How many ideas do I need in my paragraphs? It depends on the question
Can I start a sentence with “Firstly”? Of course you can!
If you are a student who feels constantly confused by all this information, then I want you to
know that you are not alone. I have got a Master of Applied Linguistics and have been
teaching English for almost 20 years and even I'm confused! So, let's make something very
clear from the beginning of this book:
There is no "right" way to write an IELTS essay
Page 3
I am serious. When you become an examiner, you are not given a magic piece of paper with
all of the “expected” organisation for every essay. You are not told the “right” way to write
an introduction, or the “wrong” way to conclude an essay. And you are de nitely not told
which transition signals are “good” and “bad”.
What you learn at examiner training
This might come as a surprise but all you are taught at examiner training is how to do ONE
thing and ONE thing only:
To apply the IELTS band descriptors correctly
That's it. There is no hidden code, no secret grammar points, there isn't even a secret
handshake!!! All you do in examiner training is mark endless essays so that you are able to
apply the band descriptors accurately again and again and again and again.
Even better, you know those “public” band descriptors? That chart with all of the
information about each score and what you need to do to achieve it? Well, they are 99% the
same as the “secret” examiners’ ones. Trust me - nothing important is hidden.
Understanding the Band Descriptors
Which brings me to the purpose of this book. I want to show you how the examiner will use
the band descriptors to mark your essay because once you know how they are applied, you
will learn to recognise which advice online is good, and which is bad. You will also take a
GIANT step towards improving your essays, as you will be able to analyse your own writing.
Just think about that. Yes, you might still need a good marking service to help you identify
your language errors, but you will know what your goal is. And, all of those questions that
were stressing you out? They should hopefully disappear because you now know that the
ONLY thing you have to worry about is satisfying the …………..
band descriptors! !
Page 4
How am I going to do this? Well, we are going to look at the band descriptors in three
stages:
1. I’ll give a brief explanation of each of the four band descriptors

2. I’ll show you the 5 most common errors I saw in each area (with clear examples)
3. We'll end with a short summary of everything we have learned and some clear advice
about how to move your IELTS journey forward.
By the end of this book, you should be pretty much an expert in the dark art of IELTS band
descriptors. Well, maybe not an expert, but de nitely a student who is less confused and
more con dent about what is needed in a good IELTS essay.
If you are new to IELTS, then all this information might seem overwhelming. However, read
through everything carefully and use this as a resource that you can come back to again
and again as your skills progress.
Even better, come and join me in My IELTS Classroom and let me teach you
everything you need to know in my 40-hour interactive video course. I promise
that IELTS doesn’t need to be di cult. In fact with the right teacher, it can even
be fun!
Anyway, however you choose to study, I hope you nd this book useful. The whole reason I
decided to write it was to "de-mystify" IELTS. There are so many conspiracy theories about
why people get low scores, but there is only one truth - if you didn't get the band score you
needed it was simply because you didn't satisfy the band descriptors. Let's learn how to do
that now!
Good luck in your IELTS journey!
Shelly Cornick
irector My IELTS Classroom

D
Ex-IELTS Writing Examiner (IDP & BC)
Master in Applied Linguistics
Page 5
What are the Band Descriptors?
What are the band descriptors?

Click here to read my blog post about how your
nal IELTS writing score is calculated
OK, I’m going to be honest. If you don’t know what
the band descriptors are, then the best advice I can
give you is to stop reading this ebook and go to the
free video lesson on my website.
I am far more interesting in person than in print!

Just click on the thumbnail to the right to go directly
to the lesson.
If you have already watched the lesson, let’s do a brief review. There are no “correct” or
“incorrect” model answers to IELTS essays. It doesn’t matter if you are asked to write a
Discuss Both Sides essay or an Advantages/Disadvantages essay, your writing will be judged
in exactly the same way, using the IELTS Band descriptors. You will be judged on:
ask Response - how well you have addressed the question / given an opinion
T
Coherence and Cohesion - how well you have joined your ideas / how easy it is to read
your arguments
Lexical Resource - how wide your vocabulary is / how relevant your words are in
context
Grammatical Range and Accuracy - how complex the sentence structures you use are /
how many errors you make
The examiner will give you a score between 0 and 9 in each area and your nal score is the
AVERAGE of these scores. Very importantly, your score is ROUNDED DOWN, so if you
require a score of 7.0, you will need to get an average of 7.0 or higher i.e. 7776 = 6.5.
If you are interested in exactly how your score is calculated, you

can read more about it on my blog.
Any circular images you see in this book are links to my blog – just
click on one and it will take you directly to the relevant lesson.
Click here to read my blog post about how your nal

IELTS writing score is calculated 
Page 6
IELTS tests two di erent types of skills

We are going to look at the four areas of the band descriptors in much more detail in the
coming chapters, but I think it is useful to understand that these four components of your
score can be divided into two categories:
cademic Writing Skills = Task Response / Coherence and Cohesion

A
Language = Lexical Resource / Grammatical Range and Accuracy
One reason why students get high scores in listening, reading and speaking, but a low score
in writing is that this is the only part of the exam where you are really tested on your active
knowledge of ACADEMIC WRITING SKILLS.
Yes, you might have a wide vocabulary and a good grasp of grammar but if you can’t write a
topic sentence, or reference, or give a clear opinion, you are going to remain at a 6.5 no
matter how good your language is. This is why understanding the band descriptors is so
important.
Even though everything in them is public knowledge, most students don’t take the time to
read and really understand what “Task Response” and “Coherence and Cohesion” really
test, and so it comes as a shock when they score poorly in the test.
Page 7
Worse, getting consistently low scores often drives students to try to “increase” the
complexity of their language, which leads to more errors and an even lower score. It
becomes a vicious circle with every “improvement” leading to worse and worse scores!
The Public Band Descriptors

I think that now would be a great time for you to have a look at the public band descriptors
so you can have an understanding of what they look like. Just click on this link to download
the O cial Public Band Descriptors from my website.
You will see the four criteria at the top of each column and the scores you will get on the
left. Even if you don’t understand all of the criteria at the moment, just go and have a look.
In fact, make a note of any questions or confusion you have (this is active learning!). I am
sure that I will address them all in the following chapters of the book, but if I don’t, just email
me with any queries you have. My team is always ready to clear up any confusion!
Right, so now we have a vague understanding of the band descriptors and how they are
used to calculate your score, let’s move forward to the next section of this book and look at
each one in much more detail (but don’t forget to take a break every now and then too!).
Page 8
What is Task Response?
Page 9
What is Task Response?
Task Response
When I train my teachers to accurately band an essay, I always insist that they put down
their pens and read an essay through once with NO marking to award the Task Response
score. Many think that this is a waste of time, but this is how my examiner-trainer taught me
to band an essay, and I have always been grateful for this advice.
Why Task Response is the rst Score the examiner will give you
Remember, for Task Response, it is your IDEAS and ARGUMENTS that are being assessed,
not the LANGUAGE you use to express them. If I allow teachers to have their pens when
they rst read an essay, they naturally become so busy correcting language errors, that
they often miss the fact that the test-taker doesn’t have an opinion or has totally
misunderstood the question!
Now, you are probably not a teacher (although many teachers do take my course to
develop their IELTS teaching skills, so a big hello if you are an educator), but I strongly
encourage you to do the same thing when you are checking your essay. Most students
spend a few minutes at the end of the test checking for grammar errors, but almost none
double check that they have actually answered the task and extended their ideas! Here is a
list of questions that you can ask yourself, to check that you are on track for a high Task
Response score:
ave you addressed the question that you were given, or have you gone o -topic or
H
ignored part of the task?
Do you have a clear opinion throughout your essay?
Are your ideas extended?
Have you supported/justi ed your arguments?
Does your conclusion match what you have written in the body of your essay?
These are the questions that the examiner will be asking themselves as they read your
essay, so these are the questions you should be asking yourself every time you write too!
Try to play an active role in assessing your own performance and you will
nd that your scores increase quickly.
Page 10
Top 5 Task Response Errors
Five Most Common Task Response Errors

One of the most interesting things about Task Response is that, even though I have marked
thousands of essays from students with dozens of di erent rst languages, the mistakes
that they make with Task Response are almost always the same! While language errors can
vary drastically depending on a student’s rst-language, it seems that errors with ideas are
universal! So, let’s continue this chapter by going through the 5 Task Response mistakes I
saw most often when I was an examiner and how you can avoid them.
Not addressing the question fully

Exams are stressful. In the heat of the moment, it’s common for students to start
planning/writing their essay almost immediately. This is a mistake. Not spending enough
time reading the question properly can be a disaster.
If you write o -topic, you can essentially kiss your chance of getting a 6.5 or 7.0 goodbye. I
have seen this happen to many students - even those who I consider very strong writers.
This is why I cannot stress enough the importance of spending 30 seconds to a minute just
reading the question and being sure that you 100% understand the topic you are being
asked to write about. If you do this, you will avoid these two main errors:
i. Misunderstanding the question completely
Totally misunderstanding the task may sound like an unusual situation, but writing
completely o -topic is more common than you think. If there is one essay question that I
can choose to show this to you, it has to be this one taken from Cambridge Book 13 (Test 2):
Some people believe that nowadays we have too many choices.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?
I receive essays every week that discuss the fact that there is MORE choice in our lives
(which is de nitely true) but do not discuss if this extra choice is a BAD THING or
not. However, that is what "too many choices" means – that all these extra choices are bad
for us.
Page 11
It’s not enough to simply describe all of the choices we have today as consumers, you have
to evaluate the e ect this choice is having on us.
If you don’t talk about whether or not these choices are good
or bad for us, you haven’t addressed the question!
And, making this mistake means that before you have written one word, your score for Task
Response can now be NO MORE THAN 5.0. Yes, even if your grammar and vocabulary are
perfect, your chance of achieving a 7.0 or even 6.5 is now very slim. This is why it is so
important that you ALWAYS read the prompt twice and carefully check what you are being
asked to discuss.
Also, you have to stay on topic THROUGHOUT your essay –

many students start on topic, but then drift away in the middle
of their essays. The way to avoid this is GOOD PLANNING.
As you plan, go back and make sure that every one of your
ideas is connected to the question. If it isn’t, get rid of it, and
nd a new one. Then, stick to your plan as you write and keep
checking back to the question to make sure you stay on track.
Read my blog post to learn how you

can generate ideas for your essay
ii. Addressing only part of the question

Every word in an IELTS prompt is important. If you are given information that you ignore,
then it is very likely that you are not really answering the question directly. A really good
example of a question that students often only partially address, is this essay, again from
Cambridge Academic 13 (Test 4):
In spite of the advances made in agriculture, many people around the world still go
hungry.
Why is this the case?
What can be done about this problem?
Page 12
Almost every student who tackles this question writes an essay that is simply about the
causes of world hunger (food is expensive, environmental changes make growing crops
hard) but very few incorporate how “advances in agriculture” have not helped us overcome
these problems. Read the question again - why are those rst words there?
In spite of the advances made in agriculture, many people around the world still go
hungry.
Why is this the case?
What can be done about this problem?
They are there because IELTS wants you to consider why technology has not been enough
to stop world hunger. If you do not discuss advances in agriculture in your essay, you will
not be able to get a score higher than a 6.0 for Task Response.
Band 7.0 essays would contain ideas that incorporate the inability of advanced technology
to tackle these problems i.e. how even advanced technology cannot help in the case of ood
or drought, or that improved agricultural techniques now allow us to grow enough food to
feed everybody, but that food is not being distributed evenly across the world.
Page 13
Not having a clear and consistent position

This is probably the biggest and most common mistake I saw as an IELTS examiner. That’s
why almost the rst thing I teach students who walk into my class is how to HAVE A CLEAR
POSITION (I sometimes say it before they have even sat down!). Why?
It’s the one rule that you can NEVER break.
A lot of students waste a lot of energy asking if you need an opinion

in the introduction to an essay. My advice would always be that you
should, but whether or not you have an opinion in the introduction
is NOT actually that important. What is much more important is
making sure that your position is known throughout your essay.
In IELTS, it’s not enough to leave your position until the conclusion
– this is a recipe for disaster! Even if you decide not to put it in the
introduction, you should make your opinion known in the body and conclusion. And, what’s
the best way to make sure you have a clear opinion?
Decide what it is before you start writing!
Again, just like writing o -topic, the problem of not having a clear position can be totally
avoided if you plan properly. If you know what your position is before you start writing, then
it’s almost impossible for you not to make it clear. The best IELTS essays are those in which
every sentence explains what your opinion is and tries to persuade the examiner that it is
valid. Therefore, it is vitally important that you
Don't change your mind in the middle of an essay
If you tell me in the introduction that you totally agree with the view given, don’t end with a
conclusion that says you partly agree. A contradiction like this will again leave you with a low
score for TR. You need ONE clear view that you keep throughout the essay. Whether you
agree, disagree, or partly agree makes no di erence to your score, as long as you stick to
that opinion!
Page 14
Not extending ideas enough

If you look back at some of your old essays, how many main ideas do you have in each
paragraph? If it’s one or two, you probably don’t have a problem with extension. But, if it’s
three or four, the chances are you aren’t extending your ideas enough. This is a common
error and one that is easily avoided. Essays should feel like well-extended arguments, not a
shopping list!
You don’t get points in IELTS simply for having an idea – you get points for showing
that you can expand and extend it.
As IELTS essays are short, you really only have space for a couple of good well-extended
ideas per paragraph. If you have 4 or 5 ideas, and only 1 sentence of extension for each (or
worse NO extension sentences!), you are killing your Task Response score.
The good news is that it is very easy to avoid this problem.

All you have to do is remember the golden rule:
Never have a single-sentence argument (even if that sentence is a long one!)
So, how many ideas should you have in a paragraph? Well, it depends on the type of essay:
I n essays where you are discussing two “views”, such as a Discuss Both Sides or
Advantages /Disadvantages essays, then two ideas per paragraph is optimum, with 2
or 3 extension sentences for each. Having only one idea here would probably not be
enough to really cover the topic in depth.
In essays where you are giving only your view, such as a To What Extent or
Positive/Negative development essay, then one idea per paragraph is optimum, with 4,
5, or even 6 sentences of extension. Here, each paragraph will have only ONE main
idea that you will need to present and justify.
Problem/Solution essays will depend on the type of organisation you have used.
However, you are generally going to have two extended ideas per paragraph. In my
opinion, three ideas is always too many – you just don’t have time and space to extend
them all.
Page 15
Using fake statistics as an example

If you are using fake statistics in your essays – STOP! I’m serious. I am telling you
categorically that this new “fashion” of creating fake statistics to support arguments is
NOT a good one. At best, your example is unconvincing; at worst, it can lead you to making
completely false claims. Look at this paragraph :
There are some who argue that the main reason why McDonald’s is
very popular is that it is healthy. In a recent study, 70% of people who
ate at least twice a week in the restaurant reported losing more than
10kg of weight over the course of a year. Therefore, it is vital that
everybody eats fast food.
Do you nd the argument here convincing? Of course you

don’t! It is ridiculous! But, this is what can happen if you rely
solely on a fake piece of “research” to support an argument.
I don’t know who teaches students to do this, but when I
was marking for IELTS, I found it so frustrating when a high-
level student used a piece of invented research to justify
their argument instead of trying to EXPLAIN and JUSTIFY it.
This is a simple example, but it illustrates how fake statistics

can lead you to a strange view. If the writer had sat down
and thought of a real world example of McDonald’s helping
a person to lose weight, they would have soon realised that their argument makes no
sense.
If you only ever invent studies, you never test the validity of your ideas.
So, can a student ever get a 7.0 using fake statistics? Sure. If they have other sentences that
support and explain their view BEFORE the fake example, it is still possible. My point is that
this fake research NEVER HELPED a student get a 7.0. So, why bother wasting your energy
(and the examiner’s time) writing one?
Page 16
Other problems with examples

There are other issues with examples that cause problems, such as using personal
examples (i.e. one about a family member or friend) or ending a paragraph with an
example. I discuss both of these problems (and the issue of fake statistics) a lot more in this
blog post, so go ahead and click through if you want to read more.
I have to say that as an ex-examiner, the advice given online about examples is what shocks
me most, so I really do encourage you to go and read more about how to make your
examples more academic / real.
Want to know how to write good examples? Click here to nd out!
Page 17
Over-generalising
This is one of the most common mistakes made by IELTS test-takers, but one that, sadly,
very few are aware of. Because IELTS essays are only 250 words long, students have a nasty
habit of giving arguments that over-generalise. There are two ways that they can do this:
i. Making “sweeping” statements that are not true
In an attempt to prove or justify their ideas, students often write sentences that are simply
not true because they are too “wide”. That is to say, they take an idea that is generally true
but then present it like it is a fact. A simple example of a sentence like this would be:
People who eat fast food are obese
I s it true that eating fast food can lead to obesity? Yes
Is it true that ALL people who eat fast food are obese? NO!
Of course it isn’t. There are many people who eat fast food but are still a healthy weight.
That’s why this sentence is an over-generalisation. It is GENERALLY true, but it is NOT A
FACT.
If you are a student who wants a 7.0 or higher, you need to be careful not to write over-
general sentences. Luckily, avoiding this problem is pretty easy. Very often, all we need to
do is change our sentence slightly to make it more tentative. Here are my three favourite
ways to do this:
eople who eat fast food can be obese (Add a modal verb)
P
People who eat fast food are often obese. (Add an adverb of frequency)
People who eat fast food tend to be obese (Use a more general verb)
I have written a blog about how to avoid over-generalising and if

you have never heard of this concept, I strongly recommend that
you read it now. It really is a major problem area for
many students (you see that hedging there?) but it is one that
takes literally seconds to x once you are aware of it.
Learn how to hedge so that your arguments

are less general 
Page 18
ii. Exaggerating your arguments
Another type of over-generalising is taking a good idea TOO FAR. I see this most often in
Problem/Solution essays where students tend to exaggerate the results of a problem.
For example, many students tell me that children from single-parent families don’t get
enough attention at home so turn to crime. In itself, this isn’t a bad argument – maybe
crimes like vandalism or shoplifting might be committed more by kids from single-parent
homes (notice that I said MIGHT - I am HEDGING here). But, are vandalism or shoplifting the
examples they usually give? NO! The crime I am usually given is MURDER!
Children who do not have two parents often become criminals and commit serious
crimes like murder
MURDER? Really?!!! Isn’t that a bit….. DRAMATIC?!!!
Remember, your job is to make your arguments as convincing as possible. Try not to go too
far or be too extreme. Students who are able to recognise and explain more SUBTLE
arguments almost always get higher scores. As I explain in the blog post below, it is much
better to take a step back and think about the true impact of a problem than to rely on the
same old results time and time again.
A better problem that might stem from being a child of a single-parent is having to take on
responsibility from an early age and missing out on being a child / teenager. I would score
an argument like this much more highly than "murder"!!!!
Are you exaggerating the arguments in your essay?

Learn how to take a step back to make yours more realistic.
Page 19
5 Most Common Task Response Errors: Summary
5 Most Common Task Response Errors: Summary

1. Not addressing the question fully – make sure you read the question carefully and all
of your arguments are 100% on-topic.
2. Not having a clear position throughout your essay – know what your opinion is before
you start writing. Then, show the examiner what it is in the body. If you wait until the
conclusion, it probably won’t be enough for a 7.0.
3. Not extending your ideas enough. We never want single-sentence ideas.
4. Using fake statistics in your examples. No examiner nds these convincing – just use a
general example instead. Oh, and never end a paragraph with an example that isn’t
clearly linked back to the question.
5. Over-generalising. Learn how to hedge so that you don’t make sweeping statements

that are simply not true.
Page 20
Come and join me in My IELTS Classroom
Is your teacher
leading you in the
right direction?
In My IELTS Classroom, every student is personally
guided to help reach their desired band score.
Our video lessons are fun, interactive and more

detailed than any other online course.
Plus, in our ground-breaking marking service, we

actually re-write your work to show you how to
achieve a 7.0.
If you're serious about your result, I'm serious about helping you
achieve it.
Page 21
What is Coherence and Cohesion?
Page 22
What is Coherence and Cohesion?
Coherence and Cohesion
Even though coherence and cohesion makes up 25% of a student’s score for Writing Task 1
and Task 2, it is probably the area that most IELTS test-takers overlook in their preparation.
Quite honestly, I am sure that 50% of students aren’t even sure what those two words
mean, let alone how they a ect their band score!
The majority of students seem to think that all they need

to do to score well here is organise their essay
"correctly" (even though as I told you in the introduction
to this e-book, there is NO "correct" organisation of ANY
essay) and use transition signals between every
sentence (which is NOT a good idea). This is not true.
So........
Coherence is not just organising

paragraphs!
What is Coherence?
Very simply, coherence is how well your essay is organised and how easily it can be
understood by the reader.
I s your essay divided into clear paragraphs?

Do your ideas progress and build upon one another throughout your essay?
Could a well-educated person read your essay and understand your sentences easily?
Did you answer "yes" to all of these questions? Great – you have good coherence!
What is Cohesion?
If coherence is how easy an essay is to read, then cohesion is how well your ideas are
connected.
o you have clear topic sentences that show the main idea in each paragraph?
D
Do you use transition signals to show the relationships between your ideas?
Do you use referencing and substitution to replace key nouns that are repeated?
Yes? Great – then you also have great cohesion!
Page 23
Top 5 Coherence and Cohesion Errors
Five Most Common Coherence & Cohesion Errors

Now we know that there is so much more to coherence and cohesion than just organising
paragraphs, let's look at the 5 areas that cause students the most problems.
No clear topic sentence in a paragraph

One of the main criteria in the band descriptors for IELTS Coherence & Cohesion is having a
clear central topic in each paragraph. The way to signal to the examiner what the main idea
is in your paragraph, is to start with a sentence that clearly states what you are going to
discuss i.e. the topic sentence.
Now, when I was teaching English for Academic Purposes in universities, I would tell
students that it didn’t matter where in the paragraph the topic sentence came – it could be
at the beginning, the middle, or the end, you just had to have one! However, for IELTS, I
strongly recommend that you always START your paragraph with the topic sentence. Why?
Well, there are two reasons:
1. If you know what the main topic is going to be before you start writing, you are much
more likely to stick to that topic throughout the paragraph.
2. IELTS examiners are marking your essay according to the band descriptors. Why make
them “hunt” or “search” for your topic, or make them question if you have one? Show
them from the beginning what you are going to discuss so that they can relax and get
on with assessing the other aspects of your essay.
So, what does a good topic sentence look like? Well, that will depend drastically on the type
of essay you are writing.
1. Writing topic sentences for paragraphs with MORE than one idea
If you are writing a paragraph that contains TWO ideas i.e. a discuss both sides essay, a
problem/solution essay, or an advantages/disadvantages essay, then you just need a
GENERAL topic sentence that lets the examiner know the main idea of the paragraph. That’s
because you are giving two ideas that are united by the general purpose. For example:
Page 24
n the one hand, it could be argued that sportsmen’s salaries are too high (e.g. this
O
paragraph will contain two reasons why some people think this)
On the one hand, there are several factors that lead to a person being obese (e.g. this
paragraph will contain two causes)
On the one hand, there are a number of advantages to working from home (e.g. this
paragraph will contain two advantages)
2. Writing topic sentences for paragraphs with ONE idea
However, if you are writing a paragraph that contains ONE main idea i.e. a to what extent
essay, or a positive/negative development essay, then we have to express the main
argument in the topic sentence:
irst, removing parks from cities would result in an increase in pollution. (e.g. this
F
paragraph will discuss the rst reason for my position = pollution)
The rst negative is that private tutors are costly. (e.g. this paragraph will discuss the
rst negative = cost)
Page 25
Poor use of transition signals

Transition signals are words/phrases like “in addition” or “however” or
“therefore” that are used to show the relationship between the ideas in your essay. I think
many students believe that your whole score for coherence and cohesion is decided upon
your use of transition signals alone (which we now know is not true), so they develop one of
the following problems:
i. Overuse of transition signals
Weaker students often use transition signals between every sentence in their essay (First,
Secondly, Moreover, Finally). Often, this is because they are not able to show the
relationship between their ideas in other ways like using a complex sentence or referencing.
Also, it can be a sign that a student is not developing their ideas enough (and, as we know, if
you are describing each of your arguments in one sentence, then you are not expanding
and supporting them enough to achieve a high score for Task Response!).
The best illustration of how students over-use transition signals is when they use one
directly after their topic sentence:
On the other hand, I believe that children should be taught in mixed classes. In
addition, this will help them to learn how to socialise with the other sex.
Do you see the problem? The topic sentence has told us the main idea (well done!), so how
can you use “In addition” after it? Are you going to add a second main idea?!!!! No! You
haven’t given me ANY arguments yet, so how can you give me ANOTHER one?!
I would say that the only transition signals that you should be able to use after a topic
sentence are “Firstly” or “For example”. Even better, don’t use any transition - just start your
arguments.
On the other hand, I believe that children should be taught in mixed classes.
This will help them to learn how to socialise with the other sex because ……….
Page 26
ii. Use of “fake” transition signals
Because weaker students think that these transition signals are the key to achieving a high
coherence and cohesion score, they also wrongly think that if they can “invent” some clever,
unusual, rarely used transition signal, they will get bonus points from the examiner. They
won’t!
The fact is that these cohesive devices are

standard expressions that have been used
for centuries. While some slang words may
come in and out of fashion, transition
signals never change. Trying to use a “new”
one will not increase your score - it will
only damage it.
Here are some of my “favourite” fake

transitions (and to be clear, when I say
“favourite”, I mean the absolute worst!).
Please NEVER use any of these (or any
others that your teacher has "invented" to
increase your score!
I have a video lesson that teaches everything you need to know

about transition signals
If you want to know how to use transition signals correctly, I have a 30 minute lesson in my
IELTS Writing Course that explains everything you need to know from what the CORRECT
transition signals are and where they can be used in a sentence 
Page 27
Poor progression in a paragraph

Take a look at the band descriptors again. You can see that having
“progression” in an essay is massively important for your coherence and cohesion score.
But, what is progression? Well, very simply, it means that your essay should feel like it is
always moving forward.
Every sentence in your essay should tell me something new and be

logically sequenced
It’s interesting to me that almost every IELTS forum is full of questions about how to
“organise the paragraphs” in an essay, but never about how to organise the sentences in a
paragraph. Nobody seems to care that their sentences progress, even though this is much
harder than learning a simple “template of an essay”.
So, let me show you what progression is by showing you a paragraph that has almost none:
A paragraph with NO progression
Firstly, the biggest down-side to eating fast food is that it causes obesity.
People who eat fast food for lunch and dinner are often overweight. For
example, recent research shows that 90% of people who eat fast food every
day have more weight than is healthy. This clearly shows that fast food is
bad for our health.
Can you see the problem? Read the rst sentence of that paragraph. What does it tell us?
Fast food causes obesity. Now read the rest of the paragraph. Does it tell us anything new?
NO!!!! All it does is give me the same information again and again in di erent words!!!
This is a paragraph that does not progress. Plus there is a terrible "fake statistic"! When you
write your essay, every sentence should add something new or more convincing to your
argument. This is an extreme example, but it is a problem I see time and time again.
Compare that poor paragraph with this good one that DOES progress.
Page 28
A paragraph with GOOD progression
Firstly, the biggest down-side to eating fast food is that it causes obesity.
Most fast food contains a high amount of saturated fat, salt and sugar, all of
which can cause people to put on weight. Worse, many of these damaging
ingredients are hidden inside food that might seem relatively healthy at rst
glance. For example, it is often the salads on a menu that contain the most
calories as they are covered in high-calorie dressings. As a result, even
people who think they are making healthy choices when they eat out are
actually consuming ingredients which will lead them to put on weight.
Can you see the di erence? Every sentence here added something more to my argument –
this is progression! This is also why learning a “template” for a paragraph is not a good
idea!!! Most templates rely heavily on repeating one idea again and again – examiners are
well-trained and spot this repetition and will penalise you for doing this.
Writing paragraphs that progress is not easy if you are new to essay writing, but you can
learn how to build paragraphs relatively easily with practice. Just remember the golden rule
- every sentence that you add to a paragraph should move your essay forward and not
repeat what you have already told me!
Page 29
Unclear referencing
Students with good cohesion are able to use referencing to avoid repeating words. They do
this by using pronouns like “they” and “it”, or determiners like “this” and “these” to replace
words that have previously appeared in the sentence. Referencing is a key academic writing
skill and if you don’t use it, it will be hard for you to achieve more than a 6.0 for Task
Response. However, the problem I see most often is not students not using referencing at
all, but students using referencing poorly.
Every time you use a pronoun to replace a

word, it must be 100% clear which word the
pronoun is referring back to
Referencing is a key IELTS skills

However, even very high-level students can have problems with unclear referencing, which
is a shame as it is a real score-killer. Take this sentence for example:
What is more, these antibiotic resistant crops are fed to cows and are,
therefore, indirectly consumed by humans, which in turn makes them resistant
to the e ects,
Can you see the problem? Read it again. Tell me, who does “them” refer to here? The crops,
the cows or the humans??? It is NOT clear and so this is faulty referencing! If the reader of
your essay cannot tell immediately what your pronoun or determiner refers to, you need to
write your sentence again to make it clearer!
What is more, these antibiotic resistant crops are fed to cows and so are
indirectly consumed by humans, who can themselves become resistant to the
e ects.
This example was a hard one - I can understand why the student made the error here.
Sometimes though, students use pronouns like "them" and "it" when there is NOTHING in
the sentence (or previous sentence) for them to refer back to. Alway check your pronouns
when you proof-read your essay to make sure that they refer back to one clear noun.
Page 30
Parts of the essay cannot be understood

I guess being easy to read is the most basic requirement of “coherence” but it is worth
repeating, that the examiner needs to understand your essay with ease if you want to
achieve a 7.0 or higher. As this is a simple fact, you would imagine that most students would
do everything they could to make sure that their sentences are clear and easy to read,
right? Wrong! They do the opposite!!!
I’m serious. Almost every student who comes to me for help is so obsessed with using
“high-level vocabulary” that they end up writing sentences I can’t read because they are full
of such strange synonyms and weird paraphrasing.
Once this happens, it is almost impossible for a student to score higher

than a 6.0 for Coherence and Cohesion
We are going to discuss poor paraphrasing in a lot more detail in the next paragraph, but I
thought it was important to reinforce how using poor synonyms can have a drastic e ect
on your score for Coherence and Cohesion as well as for Lexical Resource. My advice here is
simple – always use the word that best conveys your message. Don’t take a simple
argument and change words to make it more “complex”! Make life easy for the examiner
(and yourself) and stick to the most common word used to make your point.
Page 31
Top 5 Coherence and Cohesion Errors: Summary
Top 5 IELTS Coherence & Cohesion Errors: Summary
1. No clear topic sentences – tell the examiner what the main idea in your paragraph will
be in the rst sentence.
2. Poor use of transition signals – don’t use them between every sentence in a
paragraph.
3. No progression – every sentence in your essay should add something more to your
argument.
4. Poor referencing – it is great to reference, but it should always be clear what a

pronoun refers to.
5. Parts of the essay cannot be understood – don’t let bad paraphrasing destroy your
C&C score!
Page 32
What makes My IELTS Classroom courses di erent?
In My IELTS Classroom I will teach you genuine

academic writing skills rather than just IELTS "Tips
and Tricks"
I've been teaching English for Academic Purposes in universities around the world
for almost 20 years, so I know how much students struggle if they do not
understand the fundamental principles of Academic writing.
Often it is not language that is the problem but the logic of English essays or the
"hidden" academic writing skills that many test-takers overlook.
Want to try a FREE lesson? Just choose a course and

watch the rst THREE lessons for free right now 

In my IELTS preparation course, we o er detailed lessons on EVERY
type of academic / general training writing skill including:
t he logic of essay organisation (yes, there is a logic)

writing powerful topic sentences and building paragraphs that progress
using referencing and transitions to show the relationship between ideas
giving clear opinions (including those that are not yours)
plus many other "hidden" but fundamental essay writing skills such as
hedging, distancing and paraphrasing well.
mastering 22 B2/C1 Level grammar structures
performing equally as well in Task 1 which many courses overlook)
Page 33
What is Lexical Resource?
Page 34
Lexical Resource
I’m going to be honest - I nd Lexical Resource (or vocabulary) the hardest part of the band
descriptors to explain to students. Even though I have a very clear understanding of what is
band 7.0 lexis, it can be very hard for me to “teach” this to a student because the band
descriptors for LR look so “vague”.
or a 6.0 you need “enough lexis to be able to discuss topics at length”.

F
For a 7.0 you need to use “some less common and idiomatic vocabulary and show
awareness of style and collocation”.
Topic-speci c Language
But what does “less common” mean? If you are a language teacher, I can tell you that it is C1
level lexis – the type that is taught in any good Advanced text book (such as English File or
Speak Out). But, if you are a student, it is very hard for me to summarise what is considered
“less common”, as you don’t know the lexis that we teach to students at di erent levels (i.e.
Beginner, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate, etc).
What I can tell you is that it does not mean that these words are less
common for native speakers.
This is a common misconception and why many students think that it is a good idea to use
a thesaurus to nd the most di cult version of a word that they can (as I explain later, this
is never a good idea). No, it means that they are less common words for second-language
speakers to produce.
For example, if you are discussing the environment, you would expect most good speakers
(6.0) to produce words like “climate change” or “pollution” but not so many to be able to
produce words like “contaminated water supply” or “sustainable development“.
Obviously, understanding how "common" a word is can be di cult for a non-native speaker.
This is why a good IELTS vocabulary book can guide you as to the type of words that the
examiner is looking for.
Page 35
Topic-speci c Language
I can also tell you that what the examiner is looking for is TOPIC-SPECIFIC language. This
means language that is connected the topic of the essay. For example, if you are asked to
write about the growing population in cities, do you have the nouns and verbs needed to
discuss this in detail? You would need words like
ver-population
o
transport-infrastructure
urban sprawl
lack of amenities
Examiners value this lexis much more highly than words that can be used in ANY essay
(widely-discussed, hot topic, etc). Try to make sure that you have enough language to
discuss the most common IELTS topics: environment, health, government spending, leisure
activities, work, technology, communication, learning, the arts, language, advertising, social
change, etc
The Importance of collocation

Also, as you will nd out in a moment, high-level lexis is rarely about
knowing one word, but being able to produce phrases that show a
knowledge of collocation. What is collocation? It is knowing that certain
words are used naturally together. Simple examples of this are the
many verbs in English that collocate with either “make” or “do”. For
example, we “do our homework” but we “make dinner“. There is no
reason why these words collocate together – you just have to learn
them.
A more advanced knowledge of collocation would be understanding that while we say “a

wide gap”, we say a “high cost” but a “vast improvement” – in each of these phrases the
adjective means “big”, but they collocate with di erent nouns. You cannot say “high gap” or
“wide improvement” (but you can say “vast cost” and “vast gap”!!!!!).
Obviously, it is impossible for me to teach you every good collocation – my advice would be
to nd a good IELTS vocabulary book that is divided into topics, or study a CAE or CPE
course. However, what I want to impress on you most is this:
The best word is always the one that puts your idea across most clearly.
Page 36
Top 5 Lexical Resource Errors
The Five Most Common Lexical Resource Errors

Almost all of the students who come to me for help actually have a good enough lexis to
score a 7.0 and if they followed these simple rules, they would save themselves a lot of time
and money on failed tests. So, now that we have covered the basics, let’s look at the lexical
resource errors that I saw most often as an examiner.
Poor paraphrasing/Over-paraphrasing
This is by far the most common problem I see and the one that has the most damaging
e ect on a student’s score. I think that most of the time poor paraphrasing is born from
one simple misconception: you can never repeat words in an essay.
THIS IS NOT TRUE!!!
If any teacher tells you that it is “wrong” to repeat words in an essay, please tell them “Thank
you for your help, but please give me a refund as I’m leaving this school”.
Yes, there are times when paraphrasing is

great and will de nitely boost your Lexical
Resource score, but (and it’s a big but), not
every word in English has a good synonym
(what is the synonym for “music”?), and
there are very few that have three or four.
More often than not, it is much better to

use a mix of referencing and one or two
nouns than to keep coming up with
increasingly long “paraphrases” that just
confuse the reader!
This week, one of my new students tried to

use “grouped a air” as a replacement for
“group activities” – this makes no sense at
all. If you went up to a native speaker and asked them “Do your children take part in
grouped a airs?” they would stare at you with a blank face and slowly walk backwards away
from you.
Page 37
In the same way “kith and kin” are not “family”, “investing” is not the same as “purchasing”
and “shopaholics” are not “shoppers” (and they are de nitely not “clients who approach
directly to physical stores“ which is what another student told me this week!).
The importance of context
In the same way, you also have to make sure that your paraphrase is correct in CONTEXT.
Just because words have the same meaning, it doesn’t mean that they can be used in every
situation. Yes, we have single–sex schools, but there are no one–sex schools. Yes, you can
meet someone in “real life“, but you cannot meet them in “actual life” (these are real
examples from essays I was sent this week!). So, let me make this clear:
I f you nd yourself struggling to think of a synonym or, if you have already used one or
two, JUST REPEAT THE WORD FROM THE TASK.
If your “paraphrase” is six or seven words long, JUST REPEAT THE WORD FROM THE
TASK.
If you don’t know if your synonym can be used in this context, JUST REPEAT THE WORD
FROM THE TASK.
When you paraphrase poorly, at best you are harming your LR score, but at worst you are
also damaging your Coherence and Cohesion score (as we saw in the previous chapter).
Focusing on one word instead of collocations

This second problem with Lexical Resource is
connected to the rst. Many students look for one
“glory” word that they can add to a sentence to boost
their LR score. Unfortunately, many have no idea
what that word really means (they just used a
thesaurus to nd it) and so they have no idea of the
right CONTEXT or COLLOCATION for the word (which
leads to the problems I have just described above).
The key to avoiding this error is to stop focusing on learning SINGLE words, but instead
focus on learning GROUPS of words (or as we say in English language classrooms “chunks”).
Page 38
In the introduction, I explained that the words “contaminated water supply” and
“sustainable development” score more highly than “climate change” or “pollution”. This is
not only because they are "less common", but also because they show knowledge of
collocation
The truth is that no single word will ever score as highly as a phrase. This is because
phrases like "on the brink of extinction" show a much higher awareness of collocation than
a single word like “deforestation” ever could.
Therefore, I strongly recommend that you stop seeing lexis as “words” and
start seeing it as “phrases” or “chunks” of language
Dependent prepositions
In English, certain verbs, nouns and adjectives are always followed by a
particular preposition. There is no logic to which preposition – you just have to learn which
words match to which preposition. Some are easy, for example:
hich preposition always follows the verb “depend”? Hopefully you are shouting “on”.
W
Which preposition always follows the adjective “interested”? That’s right, “in”.
However, there are many dependent prepositions that

students get wrong again and again. For example, which
preposition follows the verb “dispose”? It is NOT "on"!
I always knew that dependent prepositions were tricky,

but it is only when you sit down to mark eight essays in a
day and every one of them contains three or four errors
that you realise how tricky they are! These small errors
can soon build up to have a big impact on your LR score.
My free blog lessons contains a FREE worksheet that tests

your knowledge of 30+ common dependent preposition collocations. I recommend you
download and stick it somewhere where you will see it every day (like on the fridge or in the
bathroom!). Trust me, even if you are a high-level student, I recommend that you have a
look, as these mistakes can stop you having “error-free sentences” which will also have an
impact on your GRA score.
Page 39
Changing transition signals/opinion language

In a way, this is my “favourite” problem. Lots of students take IELTS each year before they
are ready to sit the exam. They have an Intermediate level of English (so not enough to get a
7.0 for LR) but they think that they can “trick” the examiners by learning some “high-level
lexis that can be used in any essay” (I am putting this in speech marks, but it is not “high-
level lexis” and it does not “trick examiners”).
To embark upon...
The words they generally target for this are transition signals. We
looked at this in the previous chapter - rather than saying “Firstly“,
the student says “To embark upon” (which has no meaning at all), or
rather than saying “In conclusion“, they say “To recapitulate” (again,
this has no meaning). The only explanation I have for this is that a
“teacher” thought they were being clever by teaching their students
these phrases.
I opine.......
However, we also see this in language to give opinions. I hate to say

it, but it is always the weak students who say “I opine“ (a weird, old-
fashioned word that no native speaker ever uses) rather than “I
believe” (a simple word that makes your opinion clear).
Every time a test-taker writes "I opine" an IELTS examiner dies!
Transition signals and opinion language are FUNCTIONAL. Native speakers look for these
words to understand how ideas are connected. Changing them just confuses us. If you are
using these phrases, please stop. I know that this is not what you want to hear, but there is
no shortcut for learning lexis. It is a long, time-consuming process.
However, if you want a high score, you will have to take the time to learn a wide-range of
topic-speci c lexis not just a few “strange” switches for commonly used phrases.
Page 40
Spelling Errors
This one is rather obvious, but I had to include it, as this is the problem that a ects higher-
level students the most. I have been thinking about sitting the exam for a long time now
(just to see what the experience is like from a student’s perspective) but what stops me is
my spelling.
I have a very wide vocabulary, but having spent 20

years typing on a computer with spell-check, I am sure
that many of the words that I would like to use in an
essay would be hard for me to spell. Recently, it took
me about 2 minutes to work out how to spell
“embarrassed” in a message to a friend. And, even
though I know how to spell it now, I still stumble when
I have to spell “unnecessary” (is it two n’s or two
c’s..???).
Yes, we want to include high-level lexis, but you have

to be sure that you are able to spell every word you use in essays. My motto has always
been:
If you don’t know how to spell a word, you don’t really “know” the word
There are no “ xed rules” as to how many spelling errors you can make in your essay/letter/
report. If you look at the band descriptors you can see that:
.0 – errors are rare

8
7.0 – errors are occasional (that’s not an easy word to spell!)
6.0 – there are "some errors”
What is the di erence between “occasional” and “rare”? Well, that will be up to your
examiner, but I would say that we want to keep our spelling errors under 4 or 5 in an essay -
2 or 3 would be better, but none is ideal.
Obviously, the examiner will also take into account the complexity of the word you are
spelling too (spelling “which” as “wich” is a much bigger word error than confusing an “a” for
an “i” in “illegibility”). However, even spelling errors with long di cult words are still errors
Page 41
Top 5 IELTS Lexical Resource Errors
Page 42
Top 5 IELTS Lexical Resource Errors: Summary
Top 5 Lexical Resource Errors: Summary
1. Poor paraphrasing - not every word in English can be paraphrased, so don't be afraid
to repeat words in your essay, or even copy them from the task
2. Focusing on one word instead of chunks - high-level lexis is usually a string of words
used together rather than a single word
3. Poor use of dependent prepositions - many common nouns and verbs are followed by
speci c prepositions. Make sure you know what they are!
4. Spelling - this is probably the most di cult problem to resolve, but if you can't limit
your spelling errors to 3 or 4, you will struggle to score more than a 6.0 no matter how
wide your lexis is
5. Trying to gain points for lexis by changing transition signals or opinion language (i.e.
changing words that cannot be changed)
Page 43
What is Grammatical Range and Accuracy?
Receiving high-quality feedback is an

important part of your IELTS preparation
A good marking service should help you to identify your strengths and give
you clear advice on how to address your weaknesses. More importantly, it
should give you an accurate score based on the
BAND DESCRIPTORS!
My IELTS Classroom's marking service will
correct all of your language mistakes and provide clear explanations

as to why they were wrong (NO copy and paste comments!)
show you what you did well in your essay (because learning what you
did RIGHT is as important as knowing what you did wrong!)
give you an accurate band score with clear explanations of exactly

why you achieved the score you did in each part
provide you with clear advice on what you need to do to improve

your band score in each area
rewrite YOUR essay so you can see what YOU need to change to
achieve a 7.0 (which is far more e ective than a "model answer")
Page 44
Page 45
Grammatical Range and Accuracy

Every IELTS examiner is, rst and foremost, an English teacher. Whilst very few teachers
have much experience teaching English for Academic Purposes, almost all have spent
hundreds of hours in a classroom teaching grammar. This means that giving a score for
Grammatical Range and Accuracy is perhaps the easiest part of their job.
What grammar does the IELTS exam really test in writing though? This is an interesting
question. When most students hear the word “grammar”, they almost always think about
tense. They ashback to those early language classes where they have to learn the
di erence between the present perfect simple and the present perfect continuous and they
break out in a cold sweat!
The truth though, is that in academic essays you hardly ever need to use any tense other
than the present simple. Yes, you might use the present continuous or present perfect in
your introduction. And you might need a future tense to talk about future solutions to a
problem. But, 99% of the time, you are just going to be discussing FACTS or giving
OPINIONS, and, for that, you are going to need only the present simple.
This begs the question - how can I show the

examiner that I have a high-level of grammar?
Well, the answer is COMPLEX SENTENCES.
Accurate use of complex sentences

is the key to achieving a high-score
in the IELTS exam.
If you don’t know what a complex sentence is (or how they are di erent to simple and
compound sentences) then once again, I urge you to stop reading this ebook and go to my
website. I have a FREE “Introduction to Complex Sentences” lesson that will take you, step by
step, through the di erent sentence types 
Page 46
What is a complex sentence?

Let me give you a very quick lesson here though. A complex sentence is one that contains a
subordinate clause i.e. it contains a second clause that is introduced using a subordinator.
I went to the shop = simple sentence (it has ONE subject and ONE verb)
I went to the shop to buy a cake = complex sentence to show PURPOSE
I went to the shop because I needed milk. = complex sentence to show REASON
I went to the shop although I had no money. = complex sentence to show CONCESSION
I went to the shop which is next to the cinema. = complex sentence to ADD DETAIL
I would go to the shop if I had more money. = complex sentence to show CONDITION
As you can see from these simple examples, there are many di erent types of complex
sentences and each are considered a “di erent level” by examiners depending on how hard
they are to form (which we will look at below).
Not all complex sentences are "complex sentences"

It might come as a surprise to you that there
are other ways that you can introduce
complexity into your language. In fact,
relying only on complex sentences might
limit your score to a 6.0 if the sentence
forms are considered basic. Examiners are
also looking for examples of:
ective use of modal verbs or auxiliary

e
verbs
the passive voice
complex verb phrases (gerunds /
in nitives)
pre-modi cation of nouns or adjectives
ability to move sentence parts to add
emphasis to a sentence
If you are aiming for a high score, then you should remember to focus just as much on
these elements as subordinate clauses. In fact, if you are a very strong student, these other
areas of complexity matter much more if you are aiming for an 8.0 or higher.
Page 47
Top 5 Grammatical Range and Accuracy Errors
The balance between range and accuracy

However, whatever type of sentence structure
you use, you must remember that to achieve a
high score you have to maintain a balance
between range (how many sentence structures
you use) and accuracy (how many errors you
make).
Yes, it is great to attempt high-level grammar

structures, but if this means that you have an error in every sentence, you are still going to
get a 6.0. Remember, for a 7.0, we need the MAJORITY of sentences to be error free. Also, if
you try to use grammar structures that you don’t really understand, your sentences are
probably going to be confusing to read, and this will have a negative impact on your
Coherence and Cohesion score too.
Honestly, grammar is perhaps the easiest part of your score to improve. If you want to
know the most useful sentence structures for IELTS, then take a look at what I teach in my
B2/C1 level IELTS grammar course. If you can master the 22 sentence types here, you will be
in a very good position to score a 7.0 in the exam.
I have a 9-hour grammar course that teaches the 22 most-useful B2/C1 grammar
structures for IELTS
Page 48
Five Most Common Grammatical Range & Accuracy Errors

Right, so now we know that error-free complex sentences are the key to a good GRA score,
let’s have a look at the errors I saw most frequently when I was an examiner.
No evidence of C1+ sentence structures

Complex sentences are the key to a high grammatical range and accuracy score. However,
not every complex sentence has the same “value” in the exam, as some are harder to form
than others. Think about it - I bet that you learned to use “because” in one of your rst
lessons as an Elementary student. However, I expect it was months or even years before
you were introduced to “despite”. Even though both subordinators are used to create
complex sentences, it is obviously much easier to write a reason clause with “because” than
it is to create a concession clause with “despite”.
The balance between range and accuracy
Therefore, if you want to score a 7.0 or higher for GRA, you are going to have to show the
examiner some C1-level grammar in your essay (C1 is what English teachers call “Advanced
level”). However, before I give you some examples of what those structures are, let me be
clear about a couple of things:
1. There is no “o cial list” of what Band 5.0 / 6.0 / 7.0 / 8.0 sentence structures are.
What I am about to show you is just a recommendation based on my experience as a
teacher and an examiner. The list I am going to show you is not exhaustive, but it is a
good guide to the type of language that examiners are looking for when they award
bands. Please do not email me asking what “level” certain grammar items are - my
guide would be to look at what is taught in good English language course books (like
English File or Speak Out) at each level.
2. NOT every sentence you write in your essay needs to be “high-level”. The best essays
are those that sound natural and use grammar as a TOOL to help communicate a
clear message. There is nothing wrong with using “because” or the rst conditional -
honestly, I use these sentence structures in 80% of the essays that I write. It is just that
they will not be enough on their own to give you a high score. You have to mix these
more simple complex structures with a few higher-level ones to achieve a high score.
Page 49
What are Band 6.0 or Band 7.0 sentence structures?

So, now that I have given you a warning, here are some examples of what di erent sentence
structures would be classed as by an IELTS examiner:
Please remember that language skills take time to build. If

you are currently B1 level, it is unlikely that you will be
able to jump directly from making rst conditional
sentences to inversion! Try to build your language step-
by-step. Taking 3 - 6 months to improve your grammar
now could save you multiple failed IELTS attempts in the
future. Just make sure that you are always moving
towards more complex structures though as you
progress.
Page 50
Not having a wide enough range of sentences

This is a problem that I see time and again in students’ essays and is one that can be hard
to spot if you are not aware of it. Take a look at this body paragraph. Pay particular
attention to the grammar - what problem can you see here?
There are a number of reasons why I believe that university education should not be
free for all students. Firstly, having a degree means that students are able to nd a
good career, which enables them to pay back a loan if one has been taken. Secondly,
university fees can be used to improve di erent departments in the university,
including providing students with new technology and materials, which help them to
improve the range of their knowledge and education. Finally, a well-educated
workforce plays a crucial role in many sectors in a country, which can result in an
increase in economic stability.
Now, there are a number of problems here. I hope that you noted the lack of extension
throughout. None of the three ideas presented have been extended fully, which we all know
will result in a low score for Task Response. However, what was the main problem with
grammar? In general, the sentences are well-written and error-free. So, why would this
paragraph be unlikely to help the student get a 7.0 or higher?
There are THREE result relative clauses here.
Examiners can only "pay" you for a sentence structure once. Even though result relative
clauses are evidence of Band 7.0 grammar, you can't rely on them alone:
good career, which enables them to pay back a loan if one has been taken. Secondly,
university fees can be used to improve di erent departments in the university,
including providing students with new technology and materials, which help them to
improve the range of their knowledge and education. Finally, a well-educated
workforce plays a crucial role in many sectors in a country, which can result in an
increase in economic stability.
Page 51
It might be OK to have a couple of result relative clauses throughout the whole essay, but
having THREE in ONE paragraph shows a real lack of range.
Although we never want to “force” grammar structures into an essay, we have to make sure
that we show the examiner our full potential. This means that you need to be mindful of the
language you are using. Here, the student could have made some simple changes to
incorporate a wider variety of structures. Also, limited grammatical range is another side-
e ect of not extending your ideas. If you have two or three sentences of genuine extension,
you will nd that you naturally use a mix of sentence types. Let’s improve this paragraph:
good career, which enables them to pay back a loan if one has been taken. Thus,
providing education for free is not necessary as getting a degree e ectively pays for
itself in the long run. Secondly, university fees can be used to improve di erent
departments in the university, including providing students with access to new
technology. If universities are funded solely by the government, it is unlikely that they
will be able to continue to o er students a cutting-edge learning experience. By
paying a nominal fee each year, students can ensure that their tertiary education is of
the highest level, and this, in turn, will make them more employable once they
graduate.
Now we have a paragraph that is well-extended and contains the following range of
sentence structures:
r esult relative clause

reason clause
conditional sentence
by + gerund to show result
time clause
Why not have a look back at some of your essays now to see if you are showing a wide
enough range of sentence structures. Are you really showing the examiner everything that
you are capable of, or are you using the same sentence structures again and again?
It is OK to use the same type of sentence once or twice in an

essay, but you need to show a full range to get a high score
Page 52
Not enough error-free sentences

Obviously the main problem students face with grammar is being able to construct
sentences that are error-free. Yes, you have studied the rules for months, maybe even
years, but putting all of that information together in the exam room can be di cult. It is
especially di cult when you are also focusing on addressing the question, joining your
ideas and having a wide range of lexis!
Honestly, the only way that you are going to be able to write
enough error-free sentences in the exam is practice. The good
news is that while you really do need a specialist IELTS teacher
to help you with Task Response/Coherence and Cohesion
almost any English teacher can help you improve your
grammar. If you don’t know your current level, then why not go
and take my IELTS Grammar test to see where you stand at the
moment? It is a quick way to nd out if you 5.0, 6.0, or 7.0 at the
moment 
The errors you make in your grammar are likely to be in uenced by your native language.
However, having marked more than 2,000 essays last year, I would say that these are the
three most common problem areas for IELTS test-takers.
1. Writing poor contrast sentences
Of all the di erent types of complex sentences, those that show contrast are the ones that I
see the most mistakes with. Look at this sentence. Can you see the problem?
Although multinational companies provide employment opportunities, but they often

cause local businesses to go bankrupt.
The student has started the sentence with “although” to show contrast, which is great.
However, they then destroy their sentence by adding “but” in the middle! Now we have TWO
words joining TWO clauses, which is a massive error.
Although multinational companies provide employment opportunities, but

they often cause local businesses to go bankrupt.
Page 53
NEVER have more than one word joining two clauses. All we have to do to x this mistake, is
to remove the “but”.
Although multi-national companies provide employment opportunities, they often

cause local businesses to go bankrupt.
Please note that it is also possible to remove "although" here to leave only "but", but then
we would have a compound sentence, not a complex one.
Multi-national companies provide employment opportunities, but they often cause

local businesses to go bankrupt.
In any case, whether or not you keep the "although" or the "but", you must only have ONE
word joining TWO clauses.
Another common error I see with contrast sentences is using a comma after “whereas”.
This shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the type of word that “whereas” is – it is a
SUBORDINATOR not a TRANSITIONAL SIGNAL. If you use “although” and “but” together, or
don’t know how to use “whereas” (or while or despite or yet), then you can watch my FREE
Three Types of Contrast video lesson to nd out more.
You will be surprised at how good my FREE video lesson on contrast sentences is!
Page 54
2. Subject / Verb Agreement

No matter how good your level, you are probably still in danger of writing sentences that
contain an agreement error. In English, the subjects of our sentences have to agree in
person and in number with the verbs/nouns that we use. Let’s look at a sentence. It
contains TWO common subject/agreement mistakes. See if you can spot them:
One of the reason for the popularity of the cinema is that watching lms on the big
screen are more exciting.
It’s not easy! I expect most of you think that this sentence is absolutely ne, but when we
start a clause with “one”, we have to use a PLURAL noun after “of the”:
One of the reasons for the popularity of the cinema is that watching lms on the big
screen are more exciting.
Also, when we start a clause with a gerund, we have to use a SINGULAR verb – so even
though we have “ lms” just before the verb, we still need the singular “is”
One of the reasons for the popularity of the cinema is that watching lms on the big
screen is more exciting.
If these corrections surprise you, then I strongly recommend you go and read my blog post
on Subject/Verb agreement, which covers these rules and many more.
Learning how to match your

subjects and verbs can save
you a whole band score for
Grammatical range and
accuracy
Page 55
3. Using "magic commas"
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. I don’t care if you call them “magic commas” or “run-on sentences”
or “comma-splices” - the simple fact is that YOU CANNOT USE A COMMA TO JOIN TWO
CLAUSES!!!
All commas do is show the reader where one clause / phrase ends and another starts. They
do not have the power to join clauses. Even though punctuation rules in English are rather
relaxed (as I will explain more about in a moment), this is the ONE rule that everybody
agrees on. Therefore, writing a "run-on" sentence like the one below is likely to leave you
with a 6.0 for GRA:
Every member of the community should be given the basic right to learn, it’s

the government’s job to provide people with this opportunity
Do you see the problem here? There is nothing at the start of the sentence or between
"learning" and "it's" to join the clauses. I am going to repeat this again - commas do not
contain magic powers! If you want to use two clauses in one sentence, you have to add a
word to “glue” those clauses together.
Every member of the community should be given the basic right to learn, so
it’s the government’s job to provide people with this opportunity.
Here, I have added “so” to make a compound sentence, but you can also add other words
to make complex sentences. Using words to “stick” clauses together is one of the most
basic rules of academic writing. If you are joining sentences with only a comma, you are
going to nd it hard to get a 7.0+ in the exam.
Remember, these are just a tiny fraction of the errors that test-takers
make. The best advice I can give you is getting a good teacher to give you
feedback about your grammar errors so that you can rectify them before
your exam day.
Page 56
Page 57
Having sentences that contain too many clauses

I would say that the biggest misconception about grammar is that longer is better. I mean, if
a complex sentence with two clauses is good, then one with three or four must be brilliant,
right? Wrong!
Complex doesn’t mean long and complicated. Remember, the main purpose of any
sentence in an essay is to COMMUNICATE MEANING. Sentence structures are just tools that
you can use to convey your argument in the clearest way possible.
Long sentences are hard to process
The human brain nds it hard to process massive amounts of information in one sentence.
Plus, the more clauses you add to a sentence, the higher the chance of making an error. I
would generally say that three clauses is the most you will ever need in a sentence. If you
write more than this, think about separating the sentence into two shorter ones. This will
often result in sentences that are easier to digest, and more likely to be error-free. Let’s look
at this sentence as an example:
A person who is new in the city and wishes to travel from one place to another
through bus or metro route, he or she will need to get in touch with the locals or the
transport sta in order to gain su cient information like transport time, ticket price,
and frequency of the vehicle, which means that foreign language is valuable while
travelling in a foreign country.
There are a couple of issues here. Firstly, the student has repeated the subject in the rst
clause (i.e. we don’t need “he or she” in this sentence). I expect in a shorter sentence this
mistake would not be present. Also, that nal result relative clause makes the sentence too
long and repetitive. It would be much better to break this down into two sentences:
When arriving in a new city, navigating the public transport system is often di cult
without knowledge of the local language. However, even a basic level makes it easier
to nd information such as timetables and prices.
Page 58
Examples don't have to be given in one sentence
Finally, many students think that examples have to be given in one sentence, but this is not
true. Often, they can be given much more clearly if given over two sentences. Using the
expression “Take X for example” can be a great way of breaking an example down into
smaller parts to improve progression. Look at this example. It is long and hard to follow:
For example, the loss of a particular species of animal, like the trout which is the prey
of bears, could negatively in uence the ecosystem and even worse it could mean a
risk also for its predator’s life.
However, broken into two sentences, it is much easier to read.
Take the trout for example. As the main prey of the bear, its loss could negatively
in uence the ecosystem and risk the survival of its predator.
Obviously, very high-level students will be able to write sentences with 4 or more clauses,
that are well-controlled and not repetitive. However, this should not be your goal. As I said
before, focus on making your complex sentences as concise and meaningful as possible.
Poor punctuation
I’m going to be honest with you – most native speakers have no idea about punctuation
rules. Some sprinkle commas all over their writing, others use none at all. And whilst a
handful of my friends might know when to use a semicolon, the vast majority wouldn’t even
know what one was, let alone how to use it!
Worse, most English-speaking newspapers or publishers have their own “style guide” for
punctuation marks as there is often more than one “accepted rule” and they want to make
sure that their publications are consistent.
I have always felt that punctuation and spelling are very similar in the sense that when a
student is good in these areas, you simply don’t notice or think about them.
Good punctuation, like good spelling, is invisible.
Page 59
In fact, it is rare for punctuation to have

a really detrimental e ect on a student’s
score but, when it does, it is usually
because a student has tried to add TOO
MUCH punctuation rather than too
little.
An extra comma where one is not

needed is nine times out of ten much
worse than a missing one. Honestly, it
would be better to write a whole essay
with NO commas than one with too
many!
If I had to give one tip for grammar it would be: KEEP IT SIMPLE. I genuinely believe that the
only punctuation marks you have to master for a high score are:
apital letters
C
Full stops
Commas
Apostrophes (to show possession or contractions in informal letters)
There is really no need for a semicolon - these tend to overcomplicate your sentences and
the rules are so confusing that the chances of you using these correctly are next to none.
The problem with commas

The place where I see most errors with punctuation is comma
use. Like always, I have a lovely blog post that goes into great
detail about the most common problems with commas 
However, let me run through a simpli ed version of the main

errors here:
Page 60
Always put a comma…

1. After a transition signal at the start of a sentence
However, there are far more negatives associated with working from home.
2. In the middle of a complex sentence that STARTS with a subordinator
While some believe that sportsmen are paid too highly, I agree with those who believe
that these high salaries are justi ed.
3. Between items in a list
People often eat fast food such as burgers, french fries, and fried chicken .
Never use a comma ...

1. After a subordinator at the beginning of a sentence
While, some believe that sportsmen are paid too highly,

I agree with those who believe that these high salaries are justi ed.
2. After “that” in the middle of a sentence
I believe that, the main cause of stress today is consumerism.
3. As a way to join two clauses (as we know - commas cannot “glue” sentences!!!)
Top managers are often paid high salaries, they earn a lot of money for their
companies through their contacts. .
Page 61
Top 5 Grammatical Range and Accuracy Errors: Summary
Top 5 Grammatical Range & Accuracy Errors: Summary
1. No evidence of C1+ sentence structures - not all complex sentences are equal in value.
Think about the score that you need and the type of sentences that you will need to be
able to write to achieve it. If you can’t write them now, don’t panic - just level up!
2. Not having a wide enough range of sentences - examiners can only “pay you” for a
sentence structure once. Try to vary your sentence structures as much as you can.
3. Not enough error-free sentences - this is the main di erence between a 6.0 and a 7.0.
for GRA. Get feedback and work on your weak areas!
4. Having sentences with too many clauses - "long" is not always "best". If you have
sentences that are 3 or 4 clauses long, consider breaking them up into smaller pieces
to aid clarity.
5. Poor punctuation - simplicity is the key here. Forget semicolons but make sure you can
use commas correctly.
Page 62
Final Advice
Final Advice
This ebook was meant as an introduction to IELTS essay marking. If I have done my job well,
you should now have a much better understanding of what the examiners are looking for
when they band your essays. If you have already taken the exam and failed to get your
desired band score, I hope that you now have at least an idea of where you are lacking.
Taking the Mystery Out of IELTS

IELTS is often painted as a “mystery”, with the examiners being the dark anti-heroes who
stand between a student and their new life. The truth is much more boring - the way that
exams are marked is clear and freely available for every student to see! Everything you need
to know is in the BAND DESCRIPTORS. If you focus your preparation on those, I promise you
that you will do well.
My nal piece of advice then is “BE HONEST”. I

work with hundreds of students each year, and I
have NEVER met a student who failed the exam
for no reason. If you have sat the test ten times
and scored 6.5 in writing in each attempt, then
you must have problems in at least one area of
the test. Look back at your writing and try to
understand which area it is and then put in the
hard work to address your problems.
Also, you have to BE REALISTIC. Research shows

that it takes 200 hours of study to improve ONE
band score. If you are currently at a 5.5 and your
target score is a 7.0, you are not going to be able
to reach that with “Tip and Tricks”!
Trust me when I say that there is no "magic ingredient" to improving your

IELTS score.
What you need is hard work, patience, and a good teacher!
Page 63
My IELTS Classroom
My IELTS Classroom
Thank you once again for downloading my e-book. Now that we are at the end, maybe some
of you are wondering what I do now that I am not an examiner.
id I fall out of love with IELTS? No!

D
Did I stop teaching English for Academic Purposes? No!
Did I decide to move from the “dark-side” to the "light"? Yes!
In 2014, I decided that I wanted to create an IELTS preparation centre that was totally
di erent to anything else available online. All I could see were sites that o ered “tips and
tricks” (which are never enough to really help a student) or overpriced “video courses” that
contained boring power-point presentations and nothing but the most basic of advice.
So, I sat down and tried to work out what I was doing in my face-to-face classes that was
making my lessons so e ective. This is the list I came up with:
1. my students are given the highest quality learning experience and shown all of the
important writing skills in an order that is logical and easy to understand
2. my students actively participate in lessons (they don’t just sit passively)
3. my students feel motivated because my lessons vary and I do my best to make them
fun and interesting
4. my students are always given homework that allows them to check their progress and
review the lessons outside of class
5. my students trust me because they know that I will always be honest and supportive
I then took that information and spent TWO YEARS

designing an online course that could o er an experience
that was as similar as possible to my real classroom. It
wasn’t easy, but I knew that if I took my time and built
something that I was proud of, not only would it help
people get the band scores that they needed, but it would
also be a place that could have a positive e ect on
people’s lives.
A place where people no longer felt alone and

confused, but looked after and MOTIVATED.
Page 64
My IELTS Classroom
Building My IELTS Classroom was the most di cult but rewarding experience of my life. And
the great thing is that every year we get bigger and better at helping students achieve their
band scores. As well as 33-hours of writing / grammar video courses, we have a marking
service that is widely recognised as the most personalised available online.
Unlike other (more expensive!) essay correction services, I promise that

there are no copy and paste comments. You will get a re-written version
of your own work, accurate scores based on the band descriptors and
clear advice about how you can improve your performance in the future.
In other words, my dream came true. Last year I helped over

100,000 students prepare for the IELTS exam and as time moves
forward and more and more of my students reach their desired
band scores, I hope that this number will continue to increase.
I am really making a di erence to people’s lives - which is all any

teacher ever hopes to do.
If you are looking for an IELTS tutor who can guide you with accurate information and also
care about your test result, then you will always be welcome in My IELTS Classroom. Why
not email us today so that we can talk about your IELTS needs? I always love chatting to
students about their IELTS journey so far. Feel free to message me any time
at hello@myieltsclassroom.com - I always reply!
I wish you the very BEST OF LUCK in your IELTS

journey - I know you can do it! Just remember that as
long as you are satisfying the band descriptors, you
are doing the right thing!
Speak soon,
Shelly Cornick
Page 65
The world of IELTS is often a dark and confusing place. With so much
con icting information online, students can often feel overwhelmed
and lost. However, in this book, Shelly Cornick shows students that the
key to a high score is actually quite simple - you just have to follow the
IELTS band descriptors.
Let Shelly, an ex-IELTS examiner with almost 20 years' experience

teaching English for Academic Purposes, clearly explain what each of
the band descriptors actually tests and how to avoid the most
common errors made by test-takers.
This book is an absolute must for any IELTS teacher / student who
wants to fully understand how essays are banded.

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Grammatical Range and Accuracy 46

There is no "right" way to write an IELTS essay

What you learn at examiner training

To apply the IELTS band descriptors correctly

Understanding the Band Descriptors

1. I’ll give a brief explanation of each of the four band descriptors

Good luck in your IELTS journey!

irector My IELTS Classroom

What are the band descriptors?

I am far more interesting in person than in print!

If you are interested in exactly how your score is calculated, you

Click here to read my blog post about how your nal

IELTS tests two di erent types of skills

cademic Writing Skills = Task Response / Coherence and Cohesion

The Public Band Descriptors

Five Most Common Task Response Errors

Not addressing the question fully

i. Misunderstanding the question completely

Some people believe that nowadays we have too many choices.

Also, you have to stay on topic THROUGHOUT your essay –

Read my blog post to learn how you

ii. Addressing only part of the question

Not having a clear and consistent position

It’s the one rule that you can NEVER break.

A lot of students waste a lot of energy asking if you need an opinion

Decide what it is before you start writing!

Don't change your mind in the middle of an essay

Not extending ideas enough

The good news is that it is very easy to avoid this problem.

Never have a single-sentence argument (even if that sentence is a long one!)

Using fake statistics as an example

Do you nd the argument here convincing? Of course you

This is a simple example, but it illustrates how fake statistics

Other problems with examples

Want to know how to write good examples? Click here to nd out!

i. Making “sweeping” statements that are not true

People who eat fast food are obese

I have written a blog about how to avoid over-generalising and if

Learn how to hedge so that your arguments

ii. Exaggerating your arguments

MURDER? Really?!!! Isn’t that a bit….. DRAMATIC?!!!

Are you exaggerating the arguments in your essay?

5 Most Common Task Response Errors: Summary

3. Not extending your ideas enough. We never want single-sentence ideas.

5. Over-generalising. Learn how to hedge so that you don’t make sweeping statements

Our video lessons are fun, interactive and more

Plus, in our ground-breaking marking service, we

The majority of students seem to think that all they need

Coherence is not just organising

I s your essay divided into clear paragraphs?

Yes? Great – then you also have great cohesion!

Five Most Common Coherence & Cohesion Errors

No clear topic sentence in a paragraph

2. Writing topic sentences for paragraphs with ONE idea

Poor use of transition signals

i. Overuse of transition signals

ii. Use of “fake” transition signals

The fact is that these cohesive devices are

Here are some of my “favourite” fake

I have a video lesson that teaches everything you need to know

Poor progression in a paragraph

Every sentence in your essay should tell me something new and be