Linguistic accuracy and range in the candidate's own output
Linguistic accuracy and range are assessed mainly through your own writing, and they also surface in transformation and gap-fill items. The examiner looks at spelling, punctuation, grammar, vocabulary choice and register. Errors that obscure meaning cost more than slips that do not, but repeated basic errors (agreement, articles, tense) lower the score steadily.
Control the sentence core
Check subject–verb agreement, pronoun reference and word order before you add complexity. 'The number of cars has risen' (not 'have'); 'People who live in cities' (not 'People which'). Keep the subject and verb close; long insertions make agreement errors more likely.
Tense and aspect
Use past simple for finished narrative events, past continuous for background, present perfect for experience or a situation continuing to now, and future forms consistently. Do not switch from past to present in the middle of a narrative without a reason.
Spelling and punctuation
- Common exam spellings: because, although, government, environment, necessary, receive, beginning, accommodation.
- Use apostrophes for possession and contractions, not for plurals ('the 1990s', not 'the 1990's').
- Avoid comma splices: join two full clauses with a full stop, semicolon or conjunction.
- Capitalise proper nouns, days, months and nationalities.
Range without risk
Vary vocabulary and sentence length, but prefer structures you can control. Replace 'very good' with 'beneficial', 'effective' or 'valuable' only if the collocation fits. Use a conditional, a passive or a relative clause once or twice, not in every sentence.
Worked example
Original: 'In my opinion, the governement should to invest more in public transport because it is more cheaper and ecologic.' Correction: 'In my opinion, the government should invest more in public transport because it is cheaper and more environmentally friendly.' Reasoning: spelling 'government'; after 'should' use the bare infinitive, not 'to invest'; 'cheaper' is already comparative, so 'more cheaper' is a double comparative; 'ecologic' is not the natural English adjective - 'environmentally friendly' is the standard collocation.
Traps that cost marks
- False friends: 'library' (biblioteca), 'assist' (help), 'actual' (real).
- 'People is', 'informations', 'advices', 'a news'.
- Missing third-person -s and plural -s.
- 'Depend of', 'in spite of' + clause, 'although' + noun phrase.