I resent that 
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How on Earth did you get 6.5 on writing?
Iāve tried that, but given the amount of English teaching professionals we appear to have on this forum I wanted to get a second opinion anyway.
6.5 on Writing??? The solution is simple. Lots of practice tests, covering all the task types.
Believe me Iām scratching my head tooā¦ Though it could very well be that I am a lot more used to writing professional reports where the aim is to convey your argument in the most simplistic and straightforward fashion as opposed to displaying the range and depth of your grammatical capabilities.
The issue is Iām not quite sure where Iām going wrong.
I would recommend reading some band 9 sample Task 1 and Task 2 essays. I struggle to see how a native English speaker could get 6.5 on writing assuming no dyslexia, but we live in strange times.
Google, again, āband 9 IELTS task 1 sample essayā and do the same for Task 2. There must be some monumental mistake you are making. Seriously, a native speaker could write as he speaks and get higher than a band 7.
Much appreciated for all the friendly advice.
I shall remember to go for physical and mental health checks prior to my next attempt 
I agree. That actually is helpful and thatās what I am trying to find outā¦
As I mentioned, I got a 8.5 in speaking so obviously it appears that I donāt have issues with the language.
PM me a task 1 and a task 2 and Iāll try and see where youāre going wrong.
I find this hard to believe, which intrigues me.
I donāt find it too astonishing. Iāve never done a test for real, but when I had a go at writing an example essay for students, the first go, although the structure was OK, it was too short, and I had to expand it. No big deal when word processing, but if I was writing by hand I would have had to start again, No way would I have got that done within the time limit.
I have in the past sometimes written quite well in both academic and commercial contexts, but I dont write by hand to a fixed length and I donāt write against a time limit. Iād need to practice to be confident of doing well at it.
I dunno about sample essays. Some of the ones Ive seen online have been pretty crap, and IIRC some of the British Council sample materials break their own rules in major ways
How could you possible get a 6.5? 20 minutes to write 150 words, 40 minutes for 250. You struggled to do this by hand?
You can take the computer test if you donāt like writing by hand.
ā¦ Iām NOT a native speaker and I got overall 8.5. TWICE. And I didnāt go to any buxiban at all.
IELTS is extremely easy Iām not even kidding. If you only got 6.5 for your writing I think itās possible that you didnāt follow the instructions properly. The second time I took it (this was early 2018) I spent way too much time on the first section (because the question was less ā¦ basic), as a result I only got 7.0 in my writing. The first section only accounted for 50% of the mark in relation to the second section. You should really divide your time wisely. 20 minutes for section 1 and 40 minutes for section 2 is the rule of thumb (since the overall time limit for writing is 1 hr iirc).