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Is Handwriting important in IELTS Exam?
Is Handwriting important in IELTS Exam?
Here we are going to explain in details, How Handwriting is important in ielts exam to score high band scores.
If you are sitting for the pen and paper IELTS exam, handwriting plays an important role. Clear writing so that the examiner can read your work is very important. It text can be both straight or cursive but handwriting plays a vital role while attempting the writing module.
Disappearance of Handwriting
In this modern world, technological inventions have been entered in each and every field of life which have made human life more easier and fast than ever . Such advancements have their own positive and negative impacts. More specifically, due to the presence of smartphones and other technological gadgets, the importance of hand writing is disappearing. Thus, many IELTS candidates believe that handwriting skill is no longer important and they do not require investing time to improve their handwriting.
Why good hand writing skill is beneficial for IELTS candidates ?
More importantly, handwriting proficiency inspires confidence despite some people’s belief that handwriting is not related to better IELTS writing performance. Good handwriting is important because when candidates write clearly and concisely, they also learn how to express themselves properly. This leads to better academic and professional performance. Candidates who struggles with the mechanics of handwriting may have trouble taking notes or completing their tasks efficiently. This can affect both their self-esteem and their attitude towards their IELTS writing tasks.
Significance of handwriting in IELTS exam
As hand writing is important in all exams, similarly in the IELTS Writing in General and in Academic, one has to maintain a good, readable handwriting for the examiner to be able to read answer correctly; what will be the use if candidates have written a very thoughtful, well-organized answer, yet lose marks on something like ‘handwriting’ which could be easily enhanced.
Yes, good handwriting is still more significant , because does not matter , how well – explained tasks are there , if candidates’ handwriting skills are poor then such answer sheet can never impress checkers. In such situation, only those candidates would be awarded by good scores in IELTS writing who have excellent skills of handwriting. Even though their ideas are unclear and elaboration of their ideas is totally less logical , still they get good scores in writing module of IELTS as it is more pleasing to the eye; while the examiners wouldn’t even bother to strain their eyes to read what is written.
Now , the question arises , how to prevent losing marks in IELTS writing due to bad handwriting ?
1) Clean and clear writing
Whether style of candidates’ handwriting is cursive or not, it won’t make much of a difference. Any form of handwriting is accepted but it should be readable and clear to understand .
Some candidates have cursive handwriting , they should make sure that their hand writing should be understandable properly , if not , they should avoid cursive writing.
2) Writing tools
In IELTS Listening and Reading, candidates must use a pencil while in IELTS Writing, they can use either a pen or a pencil. While using a pen, if they need to delete a word then they cannot hide some wrong or unnecessary words which looks very unorganized and have a negative impression on examiner’s mind . Therefore , it is wise to use pencil always so that they can easily erase some wrong words . Also, when they erase a word, erase it completely and write a new word; the former erased word should not be seen through the new word which is written over it, as it will confuse the examiner. If candidates are making use of a pencil, try to use a darker pencil instead of a lighter one. Make sure that their pencil is sharpened and don’t use pencils that can easily break mid-writing , if possible candidates should use mechanical pencil in their IELTS writing exam as there is no need to keep sharpening it which saves a lot of time of IELTS candidates in writing exam.
3) Regular practice
Practising Daily is crucial if IELTS candidates want to ameliorate their handwriting in the IELTS exam. They can also improve their handwriting by this casual method. Students should take out some time every day and practice writing on a sample answer sheet paper.
Overall, handwriting holds an essential place in IELTS and in all other exams. Experts analyse handwriting to know a person’s personality- Handwriting is said to be a reflection of the character. IELTS is also an excellent example of this.
Now , it is clear that candidates with poor writing skills cannot achieve good band scores whether or not their answer is the most efficient one. If their handwriting is messy, it will definitely impact their scores in IELTS writing negatively.
Written by :- IELTS expert Ms. Ramandeep kaur Gill
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