Ace IELTS Task 2: 5 Quick Fire Steps for Success

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It’s critical that you are in a confident and skilled position, before taking your IELTS.

I have spoken before about knowing the question and writing for this. I believe that a correct understanding is the first step to technical accuracy. Whether you are revising for one of the IELTS components or doing a brush up for all of them-

this applies to you.

1. Carry out the PAFF

Purpose, Audience, Form, Formality. As soon as you have your question, write down the PAFF for your question. i.e. the purpose is to debate between X/Y, or the purpose is to discuss the problems and solutions of X

2. Prove you know your argument

Prove to your reader, in this case the examiner, that you really know what you’re talking about with the power of why. Use the why as the vehicle to a well-thought-out answer. If you can trace the why throughout your essay, you know you have proved your argument and made efforts to achieve Task Accuracy.

3. Share your story

We can’t all have facts, statistics and real-life examples at the ready. Prepare to share your story in a succinct, anecdotal way so that if you can’t think of an example at the ready, you know there’s a snippet of your own story you can share. The examiner will see this and know you are accounting for the example part, if this is asked within the question.

4. Try a writing technique

You may have learnt some techniques in school, and you might remember some of them. Up-level your writing with a dash or two of a writing technique. This could be a simile, an oxymoron, hyperbole, even a metaphor. Having one of these would show the examiner that not only do you have fluent English skills, but you have flare within your English skills. As a recommendation, go light with this because even one usage is powerful on its own.

5. Seal the deal with proofreading

It may be overlooked, but saving allotted time at the end to read through your work can make all the difference. My students at school often tell me that it’s not that important or they know what they’ve written, but when they action the proofreading, they soon see the small errors they made that can often have a big impact. It might be with spelling, it might be with the word order, it might be with the a misplaced meaning- whatever it is, take the time to read what you have written so the end result is clean, fluent and easy to read. The process of thinking and forming our argument is complex, so we need to make sure the end product is one of crystal clear clarity.

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