Should you use a pen or a pencil in your IELTS test? Learn the IELTS rules for using pens and pencils and get tips.
Pen or Pencil in IELTS?
In IELTS listening and reading, you MUST use a pencil for filling in the answer sheet. This means you should also take an eraser into the test with you so you can erase mistakes.
In the IELTS writing test, you can choose if you want to use either a pencil or a pen.
Tips on Using Pens and Pencils
Pens:
- Your answers can look messy if you need to delete mistakes.
- Don’t just put a thin line through mistakes, put many lines through mistakes to delete the word completely. This will make it easier for the examiner to see which words are mistakes and which are not.
- Make sure your pen doesn’t run out. Don’t use a very old pen.A
Pencils
- Make sure your pencil is sharp and not too light in colour. It must be easy to read.
- Don’t use a pencil that is easy to break as you can miss answers in your listening test, while you sort it out.
- When you erase a word, make sure it is completely erased so that the new word is clear.
Good Handwriting Tips
You can use any style of hand writing you want in IELTS and you can delete mistakes without losing marks. However, if your handwriting or words are difficult to read, it will reduce your score. If the examiner can’t read it, it’s wrong.
If you wish to put another word into a sentence in your IELTS writing test, you can use the ^ sign. However, make sure the word is easy to read.
You should practice writing your answers on the official answer sheets for listening and reading before your test. You should also practice writing your essays on the official writing paper. See this page for tips on using the official writing paper and to download it for free: Using the Official Writing Paper. Follow these links to get the listening and reading answer sheets: Listening Answer Sheet and IELTS Reading Answer Sheet
Know more about IELTS
- Capital letters?
- Wearing a watch?
- Writing on the question paper?
- Writing T instead of True?
- Indenting your paragraphs ?
- See the answers on the IELTS Information Page (everything about IELTS).
Check the pen and pencil rules on the BC website: IELTS Listening Test Rules. You will find links on that page to the reading, writing and speaking test rules.
Main IELTS Pages
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