IELTS (International English Language Testing System) is an exam that foreign students must take to prove that their English language proficiency is good enough to study abroad. This test is a prerequisite for getting admission into foreign colleges and universities in Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia.
There are four modules of IELTS one of which is the writing test. This test has two tasks, and exam takers have exactly one hour to do them. From this hour, 20 minutes are designated for the first task and 40 minutes for the other.
In the first task, the exam taker has to describe some information that they glean from a visual medium such as a graph, chart, or diagram. In the second task, they have to write an essay based on a given prompt. So, how can AI tools help candidates prepare for this writing test? Let’s find out.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can significantly aid in IELTS writing preparation. These tools can assist test-takers in improving their writing skills, enhancing their vocabulary, and identifying grammatical errors.
AI-powered writing tools such as Grammarly, Quillbot, and Turnitin can help users identify their writing weaknesses and suggest appropriate corrections. Additionally, virtual writing assistants like Foco and Wordtune can help users rephrase their sentences to make them sound more natural and fluent.
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How to Utilize AI Tools to Prepare for IELTS Writing Exam
AI tools come in all shapes and sizes, deciding which ones are good for you and which ones aren’t can be the difference between passing and failing. In this article, we will recommend some useful AI tools that can help you prepare for the IELTS writing exam. However, our course of action will be to highlight the benefit rather than the tool. So let’s get started.
1. AI Tools Can Help You Increase Your Vocabulary
In the first task, candidates have to understand some non-textual information and then convert it into text. This is a test that is heavily dependent on the candidate’s vocabulary and command of English.
Candidates prepare for this test by taking practice samples and trying to solve them on their own. They can proceed by tallying their answer against the given correct answer. It is important to note that in this particular test, there are a variety of ways in which the candidate can formulate their answer. Some ways are better compared to others.
With the help of an AI tool, candidates can paraphrase online the given text to see different versions of it. In doing so, they will be exposed to new vocabulary. Not only will this improve the size of their word bank but it will also teach them how to form varied sentences.
There is plenty of research available showing how paraphrasing tools are good at improving the writing skills of ESL (English as a Second Language) students.
2. Provide Instant Feedback About Your Errors
People who are preparing for IELTS need everything that can make the learning process more streamlined. AI tools can help with this easily. One of the most common mistakes that candidates will make is grammar errors. This can include things like:
- Subject-verb disagreement
- Example: The squirrels climbs (climb) in the trees.
- Incorrect pronoun usage
- Example: I know a person that (who) can type really fast.
- Incorrect preposition
- I am going to meet someone on (at) the parking lot.
- Typos and spelling errors
- This is a nice burger jointe (joint).
These mistakes can largely go unnoticed during practice writing. However, with an AI tool, a candidate can grammar check their work and find such mistakes in a short amount of time.
As for the instant feedback part, that is enabled by extensions. Plenty of grammar checkers have extensions that work in word processing tools or web browsers. They can find and highlight a grammar mistake as soon as you make it. The best thing is that they provide the correction as well as an explanation about the mistake.
This helps the user to identify and work on their most common mistakes and root them out. This will help them in the IELTS writing test because they will make fewer mistakes which means that there will be fewer penalties as well.
3. AI Tools Can Help You Write Readable Essays
One of the biggest problems that ESL students face is clarity in writing. They make the mistake of translating their own language word for word into English. Now, this may work fine for Germanic languages and other languages used in Europe. However, it never works for easter languages as they have a fundamentally different structure.
So, the resultant writing is really confusing to read and understand, and in IELTS this can cost precious marks. AI tools that check for readability can help users understand how easy or difficult to read their write-up is.
Then they can augment that with paraphrasing tools and summarizers to restructure the write-up and make it much easier to read. In this case, paraphrasers will correct the sentence structure, and the summarizer will remove redundancy. The resultant text will be more suited for an IELTS writing exam.
Candidates can see how AI tools manipulate their text which aids them in learning how to write clearly and concisely. In this way, they become more prepared for the IELTS writing test.
Conclusion
These are some ways in which AI tools can help you prepare for the IELTS writing test. If you want to learn more about what IELTS is and what other modules it has, you can find out on IELTS ScoreBoard. Most AI tools that help with writing are available for free nowadays, so you won’t have to pay at all to make use of them.