In this tutorial you will learn:

* A list of grammar points and topics that are necessary to achieve IELTS Band score 7 and higher in Writing or Speaking exam section.

This will help you in your IELTS exam because:

* You will find out how to structure your grammar study and revision while preparing for the IELTS exam.

* You will learn what these grammar points look like and will be able to understand how to use them correctly.

* You will see which grammar points are required for the highest level of language proficiency in Bands 8 and 9.

You know that grammar is an important aspect in both the Writing and the Speaking section of the IELTS exam.

Yet, it is also important to keep in mind that grammar is not only about how correctly you use tenses, sentence structures or adverbs. It is also about the range, or variety and complexity of the grammatical points you are expected to use.

If you want to avoid mistakes and keep using only simple structures and tenses, your score might not exceed 6.0, be it Speaking or Writing.

This is why we would like to present a list of some grammar points, illustrated by examples, that are desirable in your writing or speech if you aim at 7.0 or higher. But remember, you need to use them correctly and appropriately in your sentences to obtain that wonderful high score.

Each subsequent band score involves an accurate and appropriate use of the grammar elements mentioned for the previous band.

These grammar points can and should be used in your formal and informal letters, depending on the case, in your discursive essays, and, of course, in the Speaking part of the exam.

Band 7

Passive forms

Use Past Simple Passive when we don’t know who did something.

The bendable straw was made in the 1930s somewhere in the United States.

Passive forms are used in news reporting, scientific writing and other kinds of writing where we are more interested in events and processes than in the person doing the action.

A factory was set alight during the weekend and two million pounds’ worth of damage was caused.

When the situation is in the present and the sentence needs to be impersonal – the passive form of the verb plus the infinitive:

The President is believed to be in contact with the Russians.

Same situation in the past – passive plus the pastinfinitive:

He is said to have poisoned his opponents in order to gain power.

Politicians in Burkina Faso are said to use underhand tactics, such as poisoning, against their opponents in order to gain power.

Second, third, and mixed conditionals 

The second conditional is used to talk about unlikely or imaginary states or events in the present or future (form = if + past simple/continuous + would/could/should/might).

They would leave their jobs tomorrow and travel the world if they had the money.

The third conditional is used to talk about imaginary states or events in the past (form = if + past perfect + would/ could/should/might + have + past participle).

If they had studied other cultures at school, they might have been more confident about travelling.

MIXED Conditional: A third conditional cause is sometimes linked to a second conditional result to show the imaginary present result of an imaginary past event or situation.

If my parents had never met, I wouldn’t be here now!

If pollution had been brought under control earlier, activists such as Greta Thunberg would not have appeared.

MIXED Conditional: A second conditional cause is sometimes linked to a third conditional result to show how an ongoing situation produced an effect in the past.

If he knew about computers,