Differences Between Writing Task 2 General + Academic Topics + Answer Structures

[OnlineEnglishTeacher]

Hello IELTS Examiner David - a great opportunity to ask someone with your background - interested to hear your comments - thank you, Philip.

[terry3218]

I'm also curious about it. Let's hope some examiner shares insights on this soon

[David.IELTS.Examiner]

Hello!
There's really very little difference from the examiner's point of view. The General questions are somewhat easier and usually have a shorter rubric compared to the Academic ones. The biggest difference is that the Academic questions almost always require the candidate to examine the question(s) from more than one perspective, whilst General questions often do not require this.
All the best,
David

[OnlineEnglishTeacher]

Hello!
There's really very little difference from the examiner's point of view. The General questions are somewhat easier and usually have a shorter rubric compared to the Academic ones. The biggest difference is that the Academic questions almost always require the candidate to examine the question(s) from more than one perspective, whilst General questions often do not require this.
All the best,
David

Hello David,

Great - by "rubric", you mean the number of words in the question? And from two perspectives, I assume you mean "benefits and negatives" etc., vs just "benefits"?

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/defin ... ish/rubric

All the best,

Philip

[David.IELTS.Examiner]

That's correct.

Candidates should also remember to change words in the rubric using synonyms whenever possible (e.g. 'advantages' to 'benefits' and vice versa).

I have some General candidates on my courses and I always recommend that they look at the issue presented in Task 2 from both sides, even though this may not be required. It never hurts to give the examiner a little extra!