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IELTS Writing

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prasanna1157

Star Member
Oct 22, 2015
144
1
Hello,

Does handwriting matter in the IELTS general writing test? My handwriting is not the worst, but it's definitely got worse in recent years because I have not been writing much. So, I was wondering if I should spend much time at all improving my handwriting. (My exam is on Jan 9th).

I understand that I need to write at least 150 words for Task 1 and 250 for Task 2. How many more is reasonable?

Any other tips/suggestions are most welcome.
 
prasanna1157 said:
Hello,

Does handwriting matter in the IELTS general writing test? My handwriting is not the worst, but it's definitely got worse in recent years because I have not been writing much. So, I was wondering if I should spend much time at all improving my handwriting. (My exam is on Jan 9th).

I understand that I need to write at least 150 words for Task 1 and 250 for Task 2. How many more is reasonable?

Any other tips/suggestions are most welcome.
Click to expand...

Not sure what do you mean when you say your hand writing has gone worse, but as long as other people can easily read what you have written, it should be good to go. For the preparation I think IELTS hand book exercises and online topics access is good enough.
 
My hand writing is also pretty horrible and I think my grade in writing suffered a little because of that. IELTS in itself does not penalize a person for bad hand writing but the examiners are humans so if they have difficulty in reading what we have written certainly we are at a disadvantage.

Moreover, there is nothing you can do to improve your handwriting at this stage so I suggest do not worry about it. Just make sure what you write is legible, word count exceeds the minimum words cutoff (very very important) and hope for the best.

Good luck for your exam. Just relax, don't take stress because of handwriting and everything would be ok.
 
Thank you. If I were to use a pen for the writing test, am I allowed to strike something off and rephrase a sentence or use different vocabulary? Do I lose marks for making too many corrections?

I don't want to use a pencil unless I need to because I write a lot better with a pen.
 
Are you sure you have to do handwriting at all? The tests are mostly computer-based these days.
 
You have to write with a ball pen, but that not that hard if you rewind back to them school days.

My handwriting is worse than a doctor's handwriting. I wrote IELTS twice and got good scores both times. I also crossed words over, hyphenated, corrected, scribbled and what not. My papers looked like war zones.

So chill mayn. What really matters is the content and legibility. If you worry too much about things like these, you will have a hard time getting yourself together in the procedures ahead. The key is to CHILL and focus on the goal ;)

Good Luck!
 
It's worth pointing out the CELPIP is on a computer, so if your handwriting concerns you, that may be a better option.
 
As long as someone can easily read your handwriting, you are good to go.
For task 1 around 165-175 words and for task 2 about 265-275 words should be a decent amount.
All the best!
 
prasanna1157 said:
Hello,

Does handwriting matter in the IELTS general writing test? My handwriting is not the worst, but it's definitely got worse in recent years because I have not been writing much. So, I was wondering if I should spend much time at all improving my handwriting. (My exam is on Jan 9th).

I understand that I need to write at least 150 words for Task 1 and 250 for Task 2. How many more is reasonable?

Any other tips/suggestions are most welcome.
Click to expand...

Hi

It hardly matters until your writing is not easily readable. Examiner will check your writing skills e.g. how good you are at expressing your concerns by writing a letter / essay. Just make sure your writing is easy to understand. Even my writing is not so good but I have CLB 9 level.

Use a pencil inplace of Pen. This is my personal experience.

Good luck.
 
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