Joseph from Kottayam writes long, confident essays. His trainer circled the same eight errors in every one.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy rewards both variety and control. A handful of repeated errors, such as missing articles, agreement slips and comma splices, can hold back otherwise strong writing from Band 7, and each one can be fixed.

How Grammar Is Assessed: Band 6 vs Band 7

The public band descriptors judge the range of your sentence structures and how accurate they are. At Band 6, a mix of simple and complex sentences is used, but complex structures are less accurate than simple ones. Errors in grammar and punctuation occur, though they rarely impede communication.

At Band 7, a variety of complex structures is used with some flexibility and accuracy, and error-free sentences are frequent. A few errors may persist, as long as they do not impede communication.

The IELTS examiner video adds that sentences need to be as accurate as possible but do not have to be perfect. It describes repeated mistakes, such as articles that are usually used incorrectly, as systematic errors; that difference matters at Band 8 but not at Band 7. At Band 7, what counts is how many sentences are error-free, so one repeated habit can cost you many of them.

10 Common Grammar Errors and How to Fix Them

❌ Error ✅ Correction Rule in brief
Mobile phone has changed how people communicate. The mobile phone has changed how people communicate. A singular countable noun needs ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’ or another determiner.
The number of students have increased. The number of students has increased. ‘The number of’ takes a singular verb.
Teachers give useful advices to students. Teachers give useful advice to students. ‘Advice’ is uncountable, so it has no plural -s.
People buy cars and drove to work. People buy cars and drive to work. Keep one tense for actions in the same time frame.
In 2010, the population has grown rapidly. In 2010, the population grew rapidly. A finished time such as 2010 needs the past simple.
Students must discuss about their assignments. Students must discuss their assignments. ‘Discuss’ takes its object directly, with no preposition.
Rents are rising, many families cannot afford them. Rents are rising, so many families cannot afford them. A comma alone should not join two full sentences.
Public transport is cheap people use it daily. Public transport is cheap. People use it daily. Two sentences with no punctuation need a full stop or semicolon.
The state added a tax and a fee. It was unpopular. The state added a tax and a fee. The fee was unpopular. Name the noun when ‘it’ or ‘this’ could mean two things.
Education is vital for succeed in a career. Education is vital for success in a career. After ‘for’, use a noun or -ing form, not ‘succeed’.

For deeper explanations, see our guides on why Indians struggle with articles, subject-verb agreement errors, common tense mistakes and countable and uncountable nouns.

How to Eliminate Repetitive Errors for Good

One practical method is an error log. Whenever a trainer or mentor marks your writing, copy each circled error into a notebook with its correction.

Group the entries by type and pick your top three repeated errors. Check for those three first, each time you proofread.

IELTS’s own advice supports this: leave time at the end to check for spelling, subject-verb agreement, singular and plural nouns, and tense mistakes. In our plan, that is about 5 minutes for Task 2 and 2 for Task 1.

Tip

Underline each subject and verb in one paragraph of your last essay and check that they match in number.

Try It

Practice task (written for this post)

The paragraph below contains five grammar errors, one in each sentence. Find and fix them.

Online classes have become popular, but teacher cannot always see each student’s progress. Many students believes that recorded lessons save time. However, some families do not have enough equipments for online learning. In 2021, the number of online courses has doubled. Internet access is improving, more learners join every month.

Show sample answer

Online classes have become popular, but a teacher cannot always see each student’s progress. Many students believe that recorded lessons save time. However, some families do not have enough equipment for online learning. In 2021, the number of online courses doubled. Internet access is improving, so more learners join every month.

Fixes:

  1. Missing article: “teacher” became “a teacher”.
  2. Subject-verb agreement: “believes” became “believe” to match “students”.
  3. Uncountable noun: “equipments” became “equipment”.
  4. Tense: “has doubled” became “doubled”, because 2021 is a finished time.
  5. Comma splice: “so” was added to join the two clauses.

Key Takeaways

  • Band 7 needs frequent error-free sentences, not just complex structures.
  • Repeated slips can hold back an otherwise strong essay.
  • Uncountable nouns such as ‘advice’ and ‘equipment’ do not take a plural -s.
  • An error log shows you which three habits to check first.

The bottom line: Joseph’s trainer found the same eight errors every time; once you know your own, your final check has a clear target.