Grammar
Which tense each task actually needs, and where candidates drift. With an error correction exercise.
IELTS tenses produce more errors than almost any other area of grammar, and the cause is rarely ignorance of the tense itself. It is failing to decide which time frame the answer belongs in, and then drifting between two of them inside one paragraph.
Each task has a default tense. Once you know what it is, you are choosing when to leave it rather than guessing every sentence, and that decision alone removes a large share of the errors examiners see.
The rules
Six defaults. Learn the default first, then the exceptions.
Essays deal with general truths and opinions, so the present simple carries almost every sentence: governments spend, students rely, technology changes. Move out of it only to give a past example or a future prediction.
The chart tells you. Past dates take the past simple, a chart with no dates or a process takes the present simple, and projected figures take will or is expected to. Check the axis before you write a word.
Letters mix all three: past simple for what happened, present simple for the situation now, and will or would for what you are asking. This is the one task where switching tense repeatedly is correct.
Present simple for habits and facts, present continuous for what is happening at the moment, and present perfect for how long: I have lived here for six years, not I live here for six years.
The cue card usually asks about something that happened, so the story runs in the past simple, with the past continuous for background and the past perfect for anything that happened earlier still.
Never use a future form after when, if, as soon as or until. Write when I finish my studies, I will apply, never when I will finish. This is one of the most frequent errors in the whole test.
Method
Six ways this earns marks under Grammatical Range and Accuracy.
One decision at the planning stage prevents twenty corrections later. Ask which time the whole answer belongs in, then treat every departure as deliberate.
The dates on the chart decide the tense, and they are the first thing to look at. Candidates who write in the present about 1990 lose marks in the first sentence.
Drifting between past and present inside a paragraph reads as an error even when both sentences are correct on their own.
Nowadays, currently and these days take the present. In 2010, last year and previously take the past. Since and over the last decade take the present perfect.
Your view exists now. I believed that suggests you no longer do, which is not what you mean.
A correct past simple beats a past perfect continuous you are guessing at. Range only counts when it is controlled.
Practice
Each sentence contains one error. Choose the correction.
Read the whole sentence before you choose. Every option below is a real form of English, so the question is not which word exists but which one this sentence needs.
This is how examiners see your writing: not as rules broken, but as sentences that do or do not work.
1Correct the error: When I will finish my degree, I will look for work abroad.
When I finish. After when, if, as soon as and until, English uses a present form for future meaning. The will stays in the main clause only.
2Correct the error: In 2005, the number of visitors has risen sharply.
Rose. A finished time expression such as in 2005 cannot take the present perfect. Use the past simple whenever the chart gives you a completed date.
3Correct the error: I live in this city for eight years and I still enjoy it.
I have lived. The period runs from the past up to now, so English needs the present perfect. This is the single most common error in speaking Part 1.
4Correct the error: In the first stage of the process, the beans are dried and then they were roasted.
Are roasted. Process diagrams take the present simple passive throughout. Switching to the past halfway is a drift error rather than a knowledge one, and it is easy to catch when you check.
5Correct the error: Nowadays, many people worked from home at least part of the week.
Work. Nowadays places the sentence firmly in the present, so the past simple contradicts it. Signal words and tense must agree.
6Correct the error: By the time the second survey was carried out, the figure already fell by half.
Had already fallen. One past event happened before another, which is exactly what the past perfect is for. Used accurately, it is a clear marker of range.
That is normal, and it is the whole problem with grammar study. Recognising an error in a sentence someone has told you contains one is far easier than finding it in your own essay, where every sentence looks correct because you wrote it.
The complete IELTS course on IELTStestONLINE has video lessons on every question type, many more exercises like this one, and your own support tutor you can ask when an answer does not make sense. Take a look at the complete course
Choosing the right option from four is not the same as producing the structure accurately under time in an essay.
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The present simple carries almost the whole essay, because you are discussing general situations and stating opinions. Use the past only for examples and the future only for predictions.
Let the chart decide. Past dates take the past simple, undated charts and process diagrams take the present simple, and projections take a future form.
No. Use a present form after when, if, as soon as and until, and keep will in the main clause.
Not as a requirement, but range is half the criterion, and the present perfect and past perfect are the most natural way to add it without straining.
An error is more visible than a plain structure, but writing only simple tenses caps you at the accuracy half of the criterion. Aim for range you can control.
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