The writing test contains two compulsory tasks, namely Task I and Task 2. In Task 1, you are asked to describe graphs, bar charts, pie charts and diagrams and in Task 2 you are given an essay title on a fairly general subject. | tademfc WWg Fr ctiee for BELTS Introduction The IELTS Academic Writing Section The academic writing test in the IELTS exam lasts for 60 minutes. The writing test contains two compulsory tasks namely Task 1 and Task 2 In Task 1 you are asked to describe graphs bar charts pie charts and diagrams and in Task 2 you are given an essay title on a fairly general subject. Task 1 assesses your ability to analyse data objectively without giving an opinion whereas Task 2 usually requires a subjective piece of writing on a fairly general topic. In addition it is worth noting that the exam is not testing knowledge of English language but rather competence in using English. In other words it is not testing memory. Awareness of this might help reduce some of the problems that many candidates have in the IELTS exam. Word length and timing In the exam the minimum word limit for Task 1 is 150 words and you are advised to spend 20 minutes on this part of the test. For Task 2 the minimum word limit is 250 words on which you are advised to spend 40 minutes. In both Tasks there is no upper word limit. Candidates frequently exceed the minimum amounts by a very wide margin which creates several problems. Rather than concentrating on producing a good essay candidates write beyond what is necessary thinking that they will gain extra marks by writing more. This is usually not the case. It is very important that you aim for the respective word limits and perhaps write just a little more. You could write between 150 and 180 words for Task 1 and 250 and 300 for Task 2. While practising for the IELTS exam count the number of words you write per line and then work out how many lines you need to reach the 150 250 word limits. It may surprise you how little you have to write You could draw a line to mark the word limits when you are writing your homework. This will help train you to keep to the limits and help you to focus on where you are going and what you are aiming for. One important reason for
