There are two types of International English Language Tests Systems which are academic and general training. IELTS is a test which is accepted by a lot of countries mainly, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Writing and listening are the modules in which there is a need for writing the English language. These two modules test your spellings, grammar, and handwriting.
Following is a small description of both the modules; writing and listening in order to thoroughly explain why spelling matters and how can you clear your IELTS test with a great band score.
IELTS Listening Test:
The IELTS listening test is meant to be completed in forty minutes, out of which 30 minutes are given for the listening and 10 minutes are for writing down the answer properly on the answer sheet.
The listening test is divided into 4 sections where section 1 is the easiest and section 4 is the trickiest.
Section 1
An audio recording of two native English speakers is played who are indulged in a casual conversation on call. You must catch the small details mentioned in the audio such as phone numbers, addresses, places, names and time.
Section 2
An audio recording is played of only one native English speaker who delivers the information about a particular building or restaurant. You are supposed to listen to the details and mark your answer roughly on the question paper.
Section 3
This section plays a recording of a group of people discussing or conversing about something altogether. Most likely to be an academic situation like a group of students talking about their course or with their teacher.
Section 4
This section is entirely about an academic subject which is a little difficult to keep up with since the information spoken in the audio by only one native English speaker can be different from the subjects you have studied. It varies on the professional checkers what academic subject they decide to play for you.
After listening to all 4 sections, you are given ten minutes to copy your answers on an answer sheet neatly and your question paper with rough markings does not get checked by the checkers.
IELTS Writing Test:
IELTS Writing is one of the most important parts of the entire test. The final score of the whole test is mainly marked form this section.
60 minutes are provided to complete the IELTS writing test.
The writing test is divided into 4 criteria as well. 25% skills are marked form each subsection to score the final band. The criterions are named as the following;
Task Response/Achievement:
For task 1, your ability to explain, describe or summarize the given diagram, graph or information accurately, relevantly and appropriately is tested.
All the key features of the diagram must be identified accurately.
Coherence & Cohesion:
In this criteria, your writing flow is tested; this is known as coherence.
Which includes the types of sentences you have used and how you have divided the entire information into paragraphs.
The informal style will earn you bad scores therefore, it is important to stay as formal as possible. Cohesion testifies how you have connected the whole information.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary skills are tested through the lexical resource.
You cannot just use any vocabulary you can remember but what is tested through this criteria is rather your ability to use vocabulary related to the subject matter.
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
The name for this criteria gives away what is tested here. Your grammar and tense usage.
If you get this criterion right, you will earn a great overall band for the IELTS writing test.
Can Spelling Mistakes Make You Fail In The IELTS Test?
Now that both the modules are explained briefly, here stands the question whether spelling mistakes can make you fail in the IELTS test or not.
Spelling holds a lot of importance in not only the IELTS writing test but also the reading and listening tests as well. It is known that you will not get a mark if you misspell a word in the writing test.
Whether you can write a word with proper spelling or not is tested and has an impact on your overall progress report.
Does Punctuation Matter?
Well, yes. The punctuation matters just as much as the spelling. In case of bad punctuation skills, it is acceptable to forget a comma or a full stop in your writing once or twice at max.
However, if you forget putting commas, full stops, hyphens, apostrophes, and question marks all throughout your test a little too frequently, your marks will be deducted and that can lose you a lot of points.
How Important Is The Spelling and Punctuation For IELTS Writing & Listening?
Spelling as well as punctuation, let’s say, the whole of grammar makes a very big impact on your test score.
It holds great importance even though one might think that it is something that can be overlooked. Punctuation and spellings might be very small things to notice but their effect is major.
If you have the perfect structure of essays and letters, your sentences are built well and your writing stands out as well, you will score a very weak band if your grammar, spellings, and punctuation are not in place. The importance of spelling and punctuation evident because it allows the professional checker to not only grade your skills but also easily understand the context of the whole test.
If the grammar is completely off and does not make sense to the checker, your other skills will be of no use and you can lose marks on little mistakes.
Grammar is known to make up 25% of your annual writing test score through each module.
Examples of Common Mistakes For IELTS Writing & Listening Test:
There are a number of mistakes that are repeatedly made the most by the majority of the test takers. Some of them are listed below.
1. Usage of The Word ‘The’
This is a very common mistake that loses a lot of people scores. It is important to understand where to use the word ‘the’ in order to make sense to the checker.
For example, we must learn that the word ‘the’ is not used before plurals or a single country’s name.
It is used with the proper nouns and very specific universal things that are only found as one.
We can also use ‘the’ with cardinal numbers such as the third, the fifth, etc.
‘The’ can also be used before a name that is a collective noun, for example, the Middle East, The United States, etc.
2. Usage of Commas
Commas are known to be very helpful when you want to connect two words together without dropping your sentence.
However, it is important to learn where a comma can be truly used. Some people excessively use commas thus, end up losing marks on the test.
Since commas also give an expression of pause in speech, it can be used the same way in writing as well.
Proper use of punctuation matters, therefore, thoroughly work on your writing skills before taking the test.
3. Verb Tenses
The most crucial mistakes people make during the IELTS test is mainly grammar and that certainly includes verb tenses.
There are total 12 verb tenses; each has a specific formula and structure that must be followed in order to deliver correct tense in your speech.
People often mess these twelve tenses together hence, learn its proper usage before taking the test.
4. Apostrophes
Apostrophes are used in contractions. Contractions are the words which are shortened up for informal or quick speech in the English language.
In IELTS writing or listening test, contraction is not allowed as informal style is not appreciated.
It can lose you marks, therefore, make sure to never use apostrophes or contractions for that matter.
5. Common Spelling Mistakes
It is evident that the English language has a lot of words that sound exactly the same but have different spellings and meanings.
For foreigners, to mix up the two similar words is the most common mistake to ever make in IELTS.
A few examples are; to and too, there or their, here and hear etc.
Tips To Improve Your Spelling For IELTS Test
No task is impossible to accomplish if you work on it and improve yourself through practice. Same goes for the IELTS test as well.
It may seem very difficult to clear at first but with proper practice and learning, you can ace a very good score in it too.
Here are some basic tips that will help you improve your spellings, not only for the IELTS test but for general English speaking as well.
Tip#1: List Down The Words You Cannot Spell
If you have words that are difficult to memorize or spell out without an issue, list it down somewhere.
It is normal to not come up with words that are difficult for you to spell right away. So here is what you can do.
Make a checklist of the words you have trouble with as they come to your mind or you realize are troubling you.
Work on learning their spellings one by one and write them down somewhere repeatedly to memorize.
Tip#2: Part The Longer Spellings
This is a quicker way to improve your vocabulary by learning longer words that can give a more authentic meaning to your sentences. If a word is too long for you to remember, for example, government.
You can try memorizing the word by parting it into three or four syllables such as gov-ern-ment.
Tip#3: Word Games
This is a very fun way to improve your spellings, vocabulary, gaming skills and killing extra time. Words games are mostly created for educational purposes and this is exactly where they will serve you.
Play word games on your phone and as you play, the stages will upgrade with more complex and difficult words, this can be a very good method for improving your spellings and vocabulary skills.
