Cutting things, aspects, many and very — and putting something checkable in their place.
How this drill works, and why it is built this way›
Band 7 Lexical Resource asks for “flexibility and precision”. Precision is the half most students never train.
Six words to hunt in your own writing: things · aspects · factors · issues · very · a lot. Each one is a gap where a real word should be.
A sentence a reader cannot check is a sentence that scores nothing. Pollution is a big problem can be neither agreed with nor argued against.
Specific does not mean invented. You do not need a statistic. In many Indian cities is more specific than everywhere, and it is still true.
The fastest edit in IELTS writing: delete very and choose a stronger word. Very big becomes substantial. Very bad becomes severe.
Worked example
There are many things that affect student performance in various ways.
Eleven words. Nothing a reader can hold on to.
Answer: Attendance, sleep and family income each shape student performance.
Many things becomes three named things. In various ways disappears, because once the things are named the ways are implied. Nine words, and every one of them can be argued with. The point: a reader should be able to disagree with your sentence. If they cannot, it says nothing.
Moderate · CEFR B1around band 5 – 5.5change level:
The drill moves you up or down on its own. Two good sets and it gets harder; two hard ones and it steps back.
The band range is what this level practises for — it is a guide, not a score. Only your first answer to each item counts towards the level decision.
Your answers and explanations open after the set is complete, the attempt is saved and your email is verified.
For whole-sentence tasks, the checker looks for the required structure and facts; it is not an examiner and cannot judge every possible sentence.
