Students intending to score high in IELTS develop several myths about it. Many students are found having misconceptions of getting Band 7 and above in IELTS. Let us find out what these myths are:

1. The More you Write, the More you Score in IELTS Writing

Students struggle a lot to score at least Band 7 in IELTS writing. They often try out to write more and more in order to score better but actually, writing lengthy essays does not make any difference and rather, it may reduce your band score since you are likely to make more mistakes by writing more. However, writing less than the word limit gets penalized and hence should be strictly avoided.

2. You Need to Write a Lot of Ideas/Points in IELTS Writing

In IELTS writing essays, you are required to explain your viewpoint with the help of relevant ideas along with proper explanation and example. But students often take this concept in a wrong way and start believing that they have to list out a lot of ideas for explaining the reasons, which is untrue.

3. Using More Connectives Ensure Band 7 in IELTS Writing

Students being trained in IELTS training institutes are taught to use sentence connectors while writing essays, letters or reports. They start developing a wrong notion that if they write connectives, they can ensure Band 7 in IELTS writing exam but this is not true since in reality, connectives should be used naturally and their usage should not look mechanical.

4. Keep on Speaking and you Get Band 7 in IELTS Speaking

A very common belief among students who are trying to score Band 7 in IELTS speaking is that they keep on speaking with the thinking that they would be able to get Band 7 and above for being fluent. However, fluency is not the only criterion for scoring high as grammar, pronunciation and others constitute the other criteria as well where they need to score well.

5. Say a Lot of Idioms to Score Band 9 in IELTS Speaking

Using idiomatic language is an indicator of Band 9 and knowing this, students keep a false belief in their mind that if they say a lot of idioms, they would get Band 9. The main thing about using idioms, on the other hand, is that their usage should look natural and they should not be used excessively.

6. Spelling Mistakes Are Not Important in IELTS Listening

In the pretext of scoring more, students make spelling mistakes while writing answers in IELTS listening. There is misconception among students that minor spelling errors would not let their band score go down and thinking this, they keep on committing mistakes which ultimately leads to lower band score.

7. Be Attentive of All Questions Since Audio Follows No Order in IELTS Listening

This misbelieve is found even among various students who are being trained for IELTS that they prepare themselves in a way to become extra attentive believing that the audio in IELTS listening may follow random order, especially in matching heading questions. Audio conversation, however, always follows the same order as the order of question in IELTS listening.

8. You Can Write the Way you Want Even if It is Unreadable

Students who are not good in their handwriting do not even care that if their writing is not legible and examiner can’t read what they have written, they would not get any mark for it. Hence, candidates should make sure that they are writing clearly.

9. Writing Answers in All Capital Letters Gets No Mark

Candidates continue writing in small letters hurriedly which looks unreadable believing that they do not have the option of writing in capital letters. In IELTS Listening and IELTS reading, those candidates who have poor handwriting can write in capital letters and there’s no issue in that.

10. You Get Answers in Random Order in IELTS Reading

Like in IELTS Listening, many candidates develop the myth in IELTS reading as well that they get answers from the passage in any order. It is not true at all since one always find answers from the reading passage in the sequence of questions.