5 Most Common Grammatical Errors That Students make in their IELTS Writing
Getting Band 7 in IELTS writing is one of the most halenging thing for all the IELTS candidates. Millions of candidates find themselves repeatedly stuck at a Band 6.5, missing their target score by just half a band. When this happens, students often assume their ideas are weak or that their vocabulary is not sophisticated enough. However, the real culprit is almost always grammar.
The IELTS writing band score is based on four criteria, all weighted equally: Task Achievement, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. The official assessment criteria clearly state that to move into Band 7 and above you need to show frequent error-free sentences and good control of complex sentence structures. Persistent grammatical slips—even minor ones—act as an invisible ceiling, signaling to the examiner that your control over the language is inconsistent.
The good news is that most candidates repeat the exact same set of mistakes. These errors can include anything from simple subject-verb mismatch to subtle preposition errors, dangling modifiers and punctuation. If you recognize these common mistakes, understand why they happen, and take specific steps to fix them, you can eliminate systematic errors from your essays.
In this guide, we’ll look at some of the most common grammar errors that stop test takers achieving 6.5, with detailed explanations on how to fix them.
- Matching the Wrong Verb to the Subject
Long sentences often trick writers. You write a noun phrase, add a few describing words, and by the time you reach the verb, you match it to the closest word instead of the actual subject.
The Trap: The rapid increase in international flights cause pollution.
The Fix: Pollution from the rapid growth of international flights.
“Flights” is plural, but the real subject is “increase.” Since “increase” is singular, the verb also must be singular. Strip away the extra detail in your head to check if the main noun matches the verb.
Plural Uncountable Nouns
Some English words refer to ideas, not things. Adding an “s” to these words instantly flags your essay as unnatural.
The Trap: Governments should offer better educations and useful informations.
The Fix: Governments should offer better education and useful information.
Words like advice, research, equipment, news, pollution, and knowledge never take an “s.” They cannot take the place of “a” or “an”.If you want to express amount, combine them with phrases such as “a great deal of”, “pieces of”.
Overusing “The” Before General Concepts
Placing “the” in front of general, broad categories is one of the most common habits of Band 6.5 writers.
The Trap: The technology plays a major role in the modern society.
The Fix: Technology plays a major role in modern society.
For general subjects such as education, crime, health or technology, leave out the article altogether. Only use “the” when you are referring to a specific example, such as “the technology used in modern hospitals.”
Unnecessary Shifting of Tenses
Changing from past to present in the middle of a paragraph confuses the examiner, and breaks the chronological logic of your essay.
The Trap: In the past, people worked outdoors, but today workers preferred desk jobs.
The Fix: In the past, people worked outdoors, but today workers prefer desk jobs.
Give a timeline to your thoughts. For historical background use past tense, for general facts and arguments present simple, for ongoing trends present perfect.
Dropping Verbs in Passive Voice Constructions
The passive voice is common in academic writing because it helps the writing stay objective. However, missing out auxiliary verbs renders the structure grammatically incomplete.
The Trap: This global problem can solve by strict laws.
The Fix: This global problem can be solved by strict laws.
Remember the simple passive formula: Modal + Be + Past Participle (V3) or Form of To Be + Past Participle. Never omit the “be” helper verb.
Quick 3-Minute Proofreading Routine
- Quick mental pass: Before handing in your answer sheet, take three minutes to run through this
- Check your main nouns: Did you add an “s” to uncountable words like information or advice?
- Inspect your commas: Are two full sentences glued together with just a comma?
- Scan your lists: Do all verbs in your lists follow the same form?
Check “The”: Have you accidentally put “the” before generic words like society or technology?
Summary
To summarize, you get stuck at Band 6.5 almost never due to a lack of ideas, but rather small repetitive grammar slips that pull down your accuracy score. If you can identify your own mistakes and spend 3 minutes of focused proofreading at the end of each essay, you can easily avoid these mistakes. With this simple change to your editing routine, you will cross the Band 7.0 and beyond gap.
