Not Finishing the Writing Task in Time – IELTS Writing Test

This is one of the most common questions I get about the IELTS writing test, after all it is a common concern and it is a good question to ask.  There are 3 ways to look at this concern; I just focus on one task (make sure it’s an extremely good piece of work) and not attempt the other task; I attempted both task 1 and 2, then end up not finishing both; I finish one task and not finish the other.

Although I would agree that the second task does have a heavier bearing on the total score, and scoring well on that task will certainly boost your total score; I will not advice devoting the whole hour to try and make sure that you will come up with “the best” task 2 that you can.
Even if you do perfect the second task and let’s say that the bearing of the second task is about 2/3 of the total score, you will roughly only get a total of say a band score of 6; of course you could also be wrong in assuming that you got the second task perfected and get an even lower total score.

Attempting to finish both writing task is best, but if you had to choose to leave a task unfinished, I would advise you to finish the second IELTS writing task and attempt to complete as many task as you can on the first IELTS writing task.  The reason behind finishing at least one task is that the word count and a proper conclusion is part of the marking system; not finishing both tasks will incur a big penalty on you total band score. 

How do I improve my writing speed to finish both tasks?

·         Practice with a timer, it is important to note that you may need to practice for a long time before taking the IELTS exam. 

·         Read about current events and practice writing about them. 250 words in 40 minutes include the planning in the 40 minutes, you aren’t given extra time to plan about the topic.

·         Practice with any graphs, charts and tables that you can find on the net. 150 words in 20 minutes again include the planning in the 20 minutes.

·         Practice writing a letter; letters to family, telling them about your daily life; letters to your boss, asking for a promotion or a raise; you can pretty much write a letter about anything and you don’t have to send it to them.  20 minutes for every letter with at least 150 words.

REMINDER: Spelling and Punctuation is very important.

To find out what to expect from the IELTS Writing test click here

For other Writing Tips check the Writing Category