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Stuck on Your IELTS Essay? How to Get Unstuck

Stuck on Your IELTS Essay

If you are getting stuck trying to write your IELTS essay, 90% of the time it is because of the writer’s block.

This problem is incredibly common and is a major source of pain in IELTS preparation. You’ve read the essay topic but can’t think of any ideas to write about.

Do this exercise to overcome the writer’s block and easily generate ideas for any essay topic you may get in IELTS:

Preparation: Put together a list of 5 IELTS essay topics (you can use the ones we post on IELTS-Blog.com or any other reliable source).

1. Analyse the first topic on your list to understand what you need to write about.

2. Set a timer for 5 minutes.

3. Spend these 5 minutes thinking of 2-3 main ideas for your essay. Write them down, but don’t proceed to writing the actual essay.

4. Move on to the next topic on your list & repeat the process.

This exercise will do 2 things for you:

A) It will train your brain to generate ideas quickly, and
B) By the end of it you will have notes that will help you write 5 essays.

Note: If you can’t come up with any ideas on a particular topic, it means you need to do some research! Find some model essays written for that topic and see what other people are writing about. It will give you ideas of what you can cover in your essay. That way, if you’ve done this exercise enough, you won’t have knowledge gaps. After all, the list of IELTS topics isn’t endless 😉

Keep practicing and soon you will get rid of the writer’s block for good!

What other problems are you struggling with in IELTS writing? Let me know in the comments!

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Author

Simone Braverman is the founder of IELTS-Blog.com and author of several popular IELTS preparation books, including Ace the IELTS, Target Band 7, the High Scorer's Choice practice test series, and IELTS Success Formula. Since 2005 her work has helped 100,000's of students worldwide achieve their target IELTS scores and live their dream lives. When Simone isn't working on her next IELTS book, video lesson, or coaching, she enjoys playing the guitar or rollerblading.