How to Get a High Score

Welcome back to the course in this section.

I’m going to teach you what you need to do to get a high score.

So first we need to understand how the writing task one is scored.

So let’s take a look.

Basically you’re going to be created on four different categories in the aisles.

We call these band descriptors so essentially you have four different band descriptors on which you’re

going to be created we have the four band descriptors listed here.

The first is task achievement.

The second is coherence and cohesion.

The third is grammatical range and accuracy.

And finally we have lexical resource which is your vocabulary.

Note that each one of them accounts for 25 percent of your grade.

OK so how is your overall grade calculated.

Well the examiners look at what score you got for each of these band descriptors.

Each band descriptor category is scored on a scale of zero to nine and then the score is averaged out.

And that is your total score let us now explore the band descriptors in a little bit more detail.

So first of all they are a great resource for preparing for your exam and why that is is because it

will give you a very good sense of how aisles examiners are evaluating your test and how they assign

bound scores to your writing if you read the official band descriptors list.

It will tell you exactly what band you are going to get depending on the things that you do or don’t

do so let’s take a look at the official list of the writing task one band descriptors.

So as you can see here we have the public version of the isles band descriptors.

So what it tells you is what you need to do in exactly each category to get a certain band score.

So if you do the things that are listed under band Nine then you’re going to get a band Nine for your

score.

On the other hand if you do things that are listed under band six or band five then you’re going to

get a band six or five depending on the things that you’re doing or not doing so I suggest that you

take a look at this official list.

I’m going to provide you with a link to this so that you can easily find it and read it in your own

free time but just to make all of this easier for you.

I went ahead and made an outline of all the important things that you need to be doing to get a great

score so let’s take a look at that.

If you want to get a good score on the aisles task Achievement category the first thing that you need

to do is satisfy all the requirements of the task.

What this means is that you need to answer everything that the question is asking you for.

The second thing that you need to do is provide a fully developed response so make sure that you give

all the information that the question is asking you for and that you present highlight and illustrate

all the key information and make sure that you give a clear overview of the main trends differences

or stages of the info graphic.

What about coherence and cohesion.

That’s our second band descriptor to get a good score and this band descriptor.

You have to make sure that when you use cohesive devices they attract no attention.

What this means is that you have to use cohesive devices.

Naturally they should not feel like you’re forcing them into your writing.

They should appear naturally and fluently.

Next you need to know how to do paragraphs.

We’ll talk a little bit more about this later down the road then.

You also need to know how to sequence your information and your ideas.

Logically this means that you have to clearly arrange your ideas and your thoughts in a logical manner

and in a manner that the reader can understand finally make sure that you use a wide range of cohesive

devices.

This means that you should not be overusing or underage using certain words or phrases.

Make sure that you use a wide range and be sure to not repeat the same word too many times.

Now let’s talk about the grammatical range and accuracy to get a good band score in this category.

You have to make sure that you use a wide range of structures.

We’ll discuss these structures in more detail later down the road.

But to give you a brief idea of what I mean by structures you have to use a variety of sentences such

as compound sentences complex sentences.

You have to use different types of conjunctions in your writing.

Maybe use some relative clauses some passive voice and maybe a wide range of tenses.

Now in your writing you don’t have to use all the structures that are available to you.

You just need to show enough structures to show that you have command over the English grammar.

All right so we’ll discuss more of that in the future videos.

Next make sure that your errors are very minor.

If you make small typos small mistakes that’s generally OK.

You can still get a grade bound regardless of the little errors that you make but in general you should

try to avoid as many mistakes as possible.

Basically the majority of your sentences have to be error free.

That means that over 50 percent of your sentences cannot have any mistakes in them and finally you have

to correctly use your punctuation so punctuation include things like the comma apostrophe full stop

and so on.

The last band descriptor is your lexical resource which is your vocabulary so to do a good job in this

category.

You have to use of wide range of vocabulary words use a lot of different vocabulary words different

phrases and even use some uncommon words.

This will also increase your score.

Make sure that you use a variety of word formations and call occasions call occasions are basically

groups of words that often appear together we’ll discuss all of this in much more detail in the future

videos next.

Make sure that you convey the precise meaning what this means is that you have to use your words purposefully.

Basically you should use a word to mean exactly what you want it to mean.

Finally make sure that you produce as few errors as possible in your spelling and word formation so

that concludes this video.

I’ll see you in the next section in which we’ll talk about how this course is structured and what to

expect in the following videos.

I’ll see you there.