Why is my IELTS score band in writing stuck at 6.5?
- Amr Ayman
- May 4, 2017
- 3 min read

The IELTS is hard. I understand that completely. But this here is the secret of what is stopping you from crossing 6.5 in writing. If you fully understand this article, you will not get less than 7 again.
Hardly anything is more stressful and frustrating than going to the IELTS test twice, thrice or even more and get the same grade that seem like it does not want to move like a rock.
The famous IELTS 6.5 in writing has ruined a lot of careers and baffled a lot of doctors and engineers who are requested to get a 7 minimum. To overcome this obstacle, you need to understand the problem that is causing it in the first place. A. Why 6.5? You may be wondering why not IELTS writing score 6? Or 7? Why exactly 6.5? You need to know that 7 is the benchmark that passes you from B2 to C1 proficiency. You will only ever be awarded that score if you make sure that your writing contains strong arguments, on topic, and generally error free. You need to gain more understanding of the weight of these aspects to finally get out of the 6.5 pitfall. B. What should I do to get out of the IELTS writing 6.5 trap?
1. Your arguments need to be strong The first 2 to 4 minutes of the writing task must be spent preparing your ideas. That is, deeply analyzing the task to come up with a full image of the ideas you are going to use.
It does not matter what you are going to write. What matters a lot more is WHY you are presenting these ideas. Why you think they make sense. An argument, long story short, is assuming the reader is asking "why do you believe so?" or "why do others think so?" and proceeding to answer the question of why without anyone really asking. Do NOT attempt to generate ideas as you write. The introduction needs to contain a quick reference for the arguments you are about to present. If you did not prepare your arguments before writing, you will not be able to write a good introduction. Another reason why you cannot generate ideas during writing is that because stopping what you are doing to think several times is extremely time consuming. Think of the wisdom behind this beloved quote from Abraham Lincoln: "If I have eight hours to chop down a tree, I will spend six hours sharpening my axe," - Abraham Lincoln 2. You MUST understand what collocations are
Another reason many test-takers fail miserably to pass the 6.5 mark is their failure to understand what collocations are. Collocations is the law by which English vocabulary and grammar are governed.
Collocations explain to us which words work together, and which words don't.
For more about collocations, check out this great explanation. 3. You absolutely have to revise Revision is not an option. In many other tests, even the IELTS reading and listening, because of the MCQ and complete styles, revision is totally optional. Writing is a different story. We often misspell thinking we have done that correctly. We often forget our commas, periods, hyphens and capitalization. In fact, I personally even forget my verb to be sometimes, thinking that I already wrote it. Because you are not a computer, you must reserve the last 4 minutes of your writing task to examine every letter that you wrote carefully. You do not have the time to prepare your ideas while you write. You also do not have the time to revise while writing. Organize your time carefully, and you will do better. 4. Your grammar and spelling must be perfect An absolute necessity. Any grammar or spelling mistakes immediately places you in band 7.5 or less. The most common grammatical problem is failure to understand the proper time to use prepositions, or articles like a, an and the. These problems will take tons of reading to fix. You need to get into the habit of reading books, and really paying attention to these little things. Reading a lot will help you fix your spelling. 5. Your text must be well-punctuated and easy to follow That means, finally, pay good attention to your paragraphing, commas and periods. A good essay is divided into equally-sized paragraphs of about 3 to 6 sentences each; one introduction, one conclusion, and a body that contains two to four paragraphs. Do this, and your task will look beautiful. Thank you so much for reading, if you enjoyed this article, be sure to check out How to get IELTS writing band 7 and higher Also, if you'd like some help, you can try a lesson with one of our teachers. First lesson is free!
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