A SENSE OF ENGLISH

A SENSE OF ENGLISH

We’ve been considering some practical ways to approach the different parts of the IELTS exam and now we’re going to look at Part 1 of the writing test.

The test is divided into two parts. In part 1 you have to describe in your own words a diagram or some data. Sometimes the test takes another form (a description of a process) but here I want to concentrate on describing graphic information.

The data may be represented in different ways. Bar charts, pie charts and graphs may all be used. Make sure you know exactly what each one is. That’s a first and obvious step.

When describing data, bear in mind that different ways exist of saying the same thing. For example: “53% of people in Europe…” could equally be expressed by saying “just/a little over half of people in Europe…”

You should have at your fingertips two or three different ways of saying everything you want to say. Then you can mix up the use of them to produce variety of expression and gain more marks.

If you have a graph, then you can often talk about trends. Numbers can “rise” or “fall”, or you could use the nouns “increase” or “reduction”.

For example: “The graph shows a reduction in the number of…” or “The number of………has fallen.” Take note: these examples are not necessarily full sentences in themselves; they should (where appropriate) be further qualified by mentioning the time period over which the rise or fall has taken place.

You can further clarify information by using adjectives or adverbs with your nouns and verbs. Their use will gain you crucial extra marks.

Words such as “decline”, “peak”, “drop”, “steady/steadily”, “considerable/considerably”, “gradual/gradually”, “sharp/sharply”, “relative/relatively”, “slight/slightly” should all be completely familiar to you and comfortable for you to use.

There is no excuse not to be fully prepared. Search for statistical and graphical information online (there’s no shortage!) and practise analysing and explaining it.

Get a native speaker (they don’t need to be a teacher but they DO need a reasonable level of intelligence!) to help you. Practice with them over and over again until you are confident.

There are also particular grammar structures that you will certainly need to be able to interpret and describe data effectively. Again, there is no excuse not to be fully prepared if you know that you are going to need them.

Make sure you are completely conversant with numerical and comparative expressions (e.g. “twice as expensive as…”) and general comparatives and superlatives of adjectives (“long, longer, longest”).

Stick to sentence structures that you know are correct. That means you are going to have to learn a lot of them, but this is the practical element to passing IELTS.

Studying for IELTS is not the same as studying English generally. It is a specific exam for entering university, and it seeks to test specific skills that you WILL need at undergraduate and post-graduate level.

This should serve as an extra motivation for you to prepare yourself well. The skills you learn while preparing for IELTS you will use again and again when you get to university.

It is a test that has not been designed to trip you up, but to enable you to see how well you will/would cope studying at university in England. The techniques that you need to pass the exam you will also need in order to get the best out of your university programme or course.

Next time we will look at some more aspects of how to approach the Writing test, and in particular part 2.