IELTS Energy 1456: What Grammar Should You Focus On for IELTS?
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This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1456. What grammar should you focus on for IELTS?

Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English, downloaded more than 22 million times with former IELTS examiner Jessica Beck and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz. If you are stuck with a low score, our insider method will help you get the score you need to unlock your dreams. Get your estimated band score now with our two-minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com

Today you'll learn exactly what is required to score 7 or higher on IELTS Grammar. We'll also share strategies about how to improve these scores and what you should not focus on. Imagine what's possible when learning doesn't get in the way of life.

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Hello, Aubrey. You have planned out an amazing grammar episode today. What are we going to be teaching our lovely listeners? We got a really good question from a listener, Erwin.

about how much should you focus on grammar for IELTS? And if so, what should you focus on? So we are going to go over the band descriptors for both writing and speaking to see what you need for grammar to score seven or higher. We're going to give you amazing strategies so you know what to focus on and what you should not be spending time on.

Yeah, make sure to listen up, guys, because there are probably a few things that you didn't know and that will surprise you about what the examiner is looking for to give you a high score on grammar for writing and speaking. So let's tackle the first part of his question. Is grammar an important thing to focus on for IELTS students?

Yeah. And this really should not be the main focus. A lot of students focus too much on grammar. It can take up to a year to move a full band point. So it depends a lot on how much time you have to study. But even then, you don't want to spend months perfecting like past perfect tense. There's specific things that you are going to want to work on. And you

you really need to understand the band descriptors. So, you know, what does that, what do you need to do to score seven or higher for grammar? Yes, exactly. The other categories that you're scored on for speaking and writing, like vocabulary, fluency and coherence, pronunciation, like all those other things you're scored on,

easier to improve than grammar. So it just makes sense that you're going to spend most of your time on those other categories. But regardless, we know you guys have questions about grammar. You will be graded on your grammar. So let's get into exactly what that looks like.

Yeah, so let's talk about writing first. For a band seven, the examiner is looking for a variety of complex structures with some flexibility and accuracy. So you can't use the same linking phrase every time. You can't use the exact same clauses, right? We're looking for flexibility as well as to be using these structures correctly. And then the band descriptor says grammar and punctuation are generally well-controlled and

and error-free sentences are frequent. So you can see how there's nothing that tells you like must have 10 perfect conjugations, right? It's not that specific. It's an overall look of your essay. Can you create these sentences and use punctuation and grammar overall in a correct way?

Yeah. I'm glad you brought up the conjugation thing. Cause I feel like when students do worry about grammar, it's a lot of worrying about verb tenses, right? When can I use present perfect? When can I do this? And honestly guys, oh,

A majority of grammar mistakes are not to do with verb tenses that we see in writing. It's subject verb agreement. It's articles. It's singular and plural nouns. And really rarely is verb tense the problem. Exactly. And then the last of it says a few errors in grammar may persist.

but these do not impede communication. So you can see how if an examiner can read your essay and understand your thoughts very clearly, you can actually make quite a few mistakes and still score a seven, right? But when you're proofreading your essays, and we'll talk more about this in a bit, you want to be catching if you're making a lot of capitalization, punctuation, um,

These types of errors, if there are quite a few, then your score is going to go down because this impedes comprehension.

Yeah, I think a lot of students don't realize that punctuation is part of grammar, right? I'm still seeing students that do not capitalize the I pronoun, which like shocks me. But some people just miss that in their English studies, right? So punctuation and capitalization really do matter. All right. So for a seven, basically...

You have a lot of great, perfect sentences. You have some variety in sentence structures. You still have a few mistakes, but none of them are so terrible that I can't understand what you're saying. All right. So a six is different because you can have a lot more grammar mistakes and still get a six, right?

Yes, exactly. Right. So a six, it says a mix of simple and complex sentence forms is used, but flexibility is limited. So the first thing is you do still need these complex compound sentences, but we can see a little bit less flexibility with them. You can still get a six for that.

And then examples of more complex structures are not marked by the same level of accuracy as in simple structures. So like simple sentences, easy. They're perfect. And then when you're starting to use more complex structures, we see some errors. Still fine for a six. Like Jessica said, you can have a lot of errors and score a six.

Exactly. As long as, again, they don't mix up your message, right? If they prevent your meaning from coming through, then it's going to be a five or lower for grammar. Let's get into speaking. What does a seven for grammar look like on speaking? Is it a lot different than the writing seven?

It's pretty similar, but it's interesting how it's worded differently. So the seven says a range of structures flexibly used. Error-free sentences are frequent. Both simple and complex sentences are used effectively despite some errors. A few basic errors persist. So you can see how it is very similar. The examiner is looking for the same thing. It's funny how they're like, we're going to word this differently so that it looks

like it's very different, but they're really looking for basically the same thing. Exactly. Exactly. So does that mean a six is the same as well for grammar and speaking and writing?

Also similar, right? So a six is telling us you need to produce a mix of short and complex sentence forms. So same as in writing and a variety of structures with limited flexibility, same. And then though errors frequently occur in complex structures, these rarely impede communication. Almost exactly the same as speaking. So that's interesting to think about. If you understand what the examiner is looking for in your essays, it's the same as what they're looking for in your speaking answers. Yeah.

Yeah, I think the biggest surprise here so far is that students can still make quite a few grammar mistakes and still get a six for grammar. And that's why usually we tell people like you're going to get a six for grammar.

There's not a lot you could do to change that before test day. So let's talk about these other scoring categories. Right. Especially if you don't have a ton of time, that's where your focus should be. And if you're looking for an overall seven, if you can get an eight in these other scoring categories, no problem to get a six on grammar. You're sitting pretty. Exactly.

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Okay, so when IELTS says that they want to see students use a range of structures, they

What are the structures they're talking about? Is that like different verb tenses or multiple subjects in a sentence or what? I think this is the biggest thing that's confusing for students. And what makes a lot of you out there waste a lot of time is I can totally understand reading that and thinking, okay, I definitely have to use then subjunctive and past perfect and these complicated grammar verbs. No, right? That isn't necessarily the case.

You can satisfy that by using simple compound and complex sentences. Those are a range of structures that's very manageable. And then you don't have to, you can't, in fact, force past perfect into an essay or a speaking question. It's accurate if it's what's required by the sentence. And that's going to be a grammar mistake if you're using it anyway because you feel like you have to use it. Exactly.

Exactly. There's no choice in verb tense, guys. It's either right or wrong. So a simple sentence, guys, we could also think of it as an independent clause, right? It's a standalone structure. So it has a subject and verb and possibly an object. So for example, I went to the movies last week. I is the subject, went is the verb and the complement to the movies last week.

Yeah. And then compound sentences. This is an independent clause with one or more relative clauses. So, for example, or no, this is two. That's a complex sentence. Sorry. The compound sentence is two independent clauses and they're usually joined by a conjunction. So, for example, I went to the movies last week.

However, I couldn't believe how expensive it's gotten. So you have this independent clause, which is like a standalone sentence. I went to the movies last week, but then we have semi-colon. However, is our conjunction combining these two simple sentences. And then however, comma, I couldn't believe how expensive it's gotten. This also independent clause could be a standalone sentence, but you're combining them to create this compound sentence. Okay.

And with compound sentences, guys, you have to pay attention to the punctuation rules that match the linking word you're using. So these higher level linking words like however, nevertheless, whereas, in addition, those cannot go after a comma. And a lot of students make that mistake, right? So those have to go after a semicolon if you're going to use it to combine two independent clauses into a compound sentence.

Right. And then they're followed by a comma. So this is a little bit tricky punctuation, but you don't want to just divide them into two simple sentences to avoid the punctuation. You need compound sentences to have that variety of structures.

Exactly, exactly. So the final structure is a complex sentence. This is an independent clause plus a dependent clause. So a dependent clause cannot stand by itself. It is not a standalone sentence. It relies on the independent clause. So you can think of the most common way to do this as like a relative clause, right? So for example, the word,

the woman who lives next door is fantastic. So who lives next door? That's a relative clause. It cannot stand by itself. I cannot just say who lives next door unless I'm asking a question. That's not its own sentence. Exactly. Right. Or you could say, though I went to the movies last week, comma, I was disappointed by how pricey it was. So you have this relative clause starts with though that can't stand alone as a sentence. Though I went to the movies last week,

what else, right? So it becomes a complex sentence because you have multiple clauses. All right, guys. So finally, the way that you should tackle proofreading your own work. It's really hard to catch your own mistakes, right? So how can students even begin to improve their grammar on their own if they're trying to proofread their own work? This

This is really tricky. One thing, we teach this in Three Keys IELTS. You want to be very specific and purposeful about what you're looking for when you proofread. You can't have this list a mile long of all the mistakes you might look for. You don't have time for that, right? So it's specific things you're looking for. A lot of what Jessica mentioned earlier, subject-verb agreement, punctuation, capitalization, some of these mistakes that are

maybe it was just an accident, like pretty easy to catch. You want to quickly fix those. So you don't maybe accidentally score a five because you just have too many of those very simple errors. Yeah, totally. We recommend getting feedback from a native IELTS professional, um,

So they can point out the grammar errors and then you know what are the most common ones, right? Because like Aubrey said, you can't proofread for every single grammar mistake. So it's really smart to know what mistakes you make the most often. So you could begin to learn those specific rules to not make those mistakes. But then you also know what to proofread for in your essays.

Yes. And this is different for everyone preparing for the IELTS, right? There are going to be based on how your first language works often, mistakes you have a tendency to make or just your personal style. So you do need that feedback to catch those mistakes so you're ready and know what to look for on test day. Exactly. Exactly. All right, guys. Thank you so much for joining us today and we'll see you next week. Awesome. See you next week. Bye. Bye. Bye.

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