What IELTS Writing Questions are REALLY asking you to do.

You likely come from a culture and family that rewards peace and following the rules.

When you are asked a question, you agree, even if you don’t, just to help others save face.

In the West, and IELTS, it’s different.

I’m going to show you how the game works and how to win.

In the West, we discuss situations not by keeping face but by arguing for and against things.

It’s part of normal conversation. (yes this can lead to arguments, but more on that in another post.)

In IELTS, the examiner wants to answer the question by arguing for or against.

In fact, Western people will argue against about 85% of the time.

Why is that?

In the West, we are looking for what’s wrong with the question or statement.

So, if the question says “All students should do more homework.”, you might think, “Yes, homework is important. That’s what I’ve been told to do all my life”, but in the West we think, “Do ALL students really need to do more homework?”, “Is more homework actually effective?”, “what proof do you have of this?”, “Can you show me the logic behind doing more homework?”, “What countries do LESS homework but still rank top in the world for education?” and “Can I show that doing more homework is detrimental to a student’s growth?”.

From these questions grows the ideas against the statement.

Why don’t we say “Yes, it’s a good idea?” because the examiner is thinking, can you REALLY show that ALL students need to do more? What about the top 10% of the class? Do they need more homework?” NO. So it’s not ALL.