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16 Words IELTS Candidates Always Get Wrong [Video]

I’ve been teaching IELTS since 2010 and I’ve marked many thousands of essays as part of my writing correction service. In that time, I’ve noticed that there are many words that IELTS candidates always seem to get wrong. These include common words like “individual” and “recently.”

A few days ago, I made this video lesson to help explain these problematic words. I talk about each word and why it is wrong, with examples that show you how to use it correctly.

David S. Wills

David S. Wills is the author of Scientologist! William S. Burroughs and the 'Weird Cult' and the founder/editor of Beatdom literary journal. He lives and works in rural Cambodia and loves to travel. He has worked as an IELTS tutor since 2010, has completed both TEFL and CELTA courses, and has a certificate from Cambridge for Teaching Writing. David has worked in many different countries, and for several years designed a writing course for the University of Worcester. In 2018, he wrote the popular IELTS handbook, Grammar for IELTS Writing and he has since written two other books about IELTS. His other IELTS website is called IELTS Teaching.

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Nguyễn Đức Anh says:

August 1, 2025 at 12:08 pm

Hello David Wills, I want to ask you a question. When I address the question asking me 'Is this a positive or negative development', and my position is primarily positive development, then I could separate them like this way below:
1. Body 1: benefits of this trend
2. Body 2: negative sides of this trend + Refutting them with two ways: 1 - such shortcomings can be mitigated/reduced/addressed by some ways + explain them OR 2 - they are relatively minor, and they are not serious enough to outweigh the rewards/benefits
- David S. Wills says:
  
  August 2, 2025 at 1:19 am
  
  Hello. Yes, that would be fine.
  Personally, I tend to put a concession paragraph as the first body paragraph because it is allows me to end that paragraph by transitioning into the opposite view and the build upon those ideas in body paragraph 2, but it's just a preference and you can write a great essay in many different ways.