IELTS Writing & Speaking | Significance of Grammatical Range & Accuracy

You might have observed that the IELTS Writing and speaking test assessors make use of two criteria: grammatical accuracy and range. Through this article, we explore these in detail.

In general, how does the IELTS Speaking test look like?

The only IELTS test that is conducted face-to-face with the examiner is the speaking module. Some test takers could experience anxiety if they are unsure of what to expect throughout the test. The speaking test has three parts and lasts between 11 to 14 minutes.

According to the test's structure, it will evaluate a person's vocabulary, pronunciation, fluency, and grammar.

In general, how does the IELTS Writing test look like?

The Writing section consists of two activities, including a 20-minute letter writing task with a 150-word word limit and a 40-minute essay writing task with a 250-word limit. The time allocated to complete both tasks is 60 minutes.

The four criteria that the module emphasizes are achievement, coherence and cohesiveness, lexical resource, and grammatical accuracy.

Significance of expanding your Grammatical Range & Accuracy...!

Achieving a high band score in the IELTS Writing and speaking test requires accurate use of a wide range of grammar. Grammatical Range and Accuracy account for 25% of the writing grade, overall. This implies that in addition to being accurate, your IELTS grammar has to be diverse. Here are five excellent strategies to raise your IELTS grammar band score.

• Make use of subordinating conjunctions. Combine sentences using the following: although, while, whereas, so that, and because;
• Utilize relative clauses to provide more details. For example: “The woman who I met was wearing a brown hat", where "who I met" is a relative clause;
• Use the phrase 'there' + 'to be'. This is a very basic grammatical pattern that is not used very often. Because it compels you to alter the remainder of the sentence's syntax, this structure is quite effective. It forces you to rearrange the word order (the syntax) in your sentences and transform verbs into noun and adjective phrases. Put differently, using "there + to be" allows you to expand your grammatical vocabulary;
• Use a subordinating conjunction to begin the sentence. You can start the sentence with because, although, etc.;
• Add a prepositional phrase at the beginning of the sentence. Words like since, at, among, around, throughout, concerning, and in time are examples of common prepositional phrases.