In which parts of the IELTS exam are candidates supposed to express their opinions? And in which parts should they NOT? 

A couple reminders (to pass on to your learners as well):

Candidates ARE required to form their opinion on the questions asked of them throughout the whole SPEAKING test.

In WRITING, however, they might actually get into ‘trouble’ 😀 if they express a personal opinion, for example in

• the General Training’s letter task, if they don’t meet its ‘transactional’ purpose because they get too bogged down by giving their extended opinion on the subject at hand, 

or

• the Academic Training’s REPORT task, where candidates absolutely MUSTN’T include their own opinion, 

or

• the Academic Training’s ESSAY task, where depending on the TYPE of essay (e.g. opinion, for and against, solution, discursive) they might, or might NOT be expected to.

So, I think our job partly is to help them understand what’s expected of them in which part of the exam.

What’s your experience with this? Do candidates always know what’s expected of them in the productive skills on IELTS?

P.s. Are you and English teacher looking to upskill their skills teaching? 🙂 Then this might just be the right CPD for you. 😉

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