Ielts experience:
I cleared my Ielts in 4th attempt. And I just wanted to share my experience, as it might help.
Like most people, I was stuck at 6.5 in the writing part, while getting 8.5/9 in other modules.I went for rechecking twice but to no avail.
I watched Ieltsliz videos on youtube to understand the basic pattern of writing the essays in task 2, and it sure helped but I didn’t know what I was doing wrong.
After my 3rd attempt, someone advised me to get my essays checked. I subscribed to “passyourielts” by Beyden Dingle. He has a number of videos at his website, which are quite helpful, and then he corrects 5 essays for 40 dollars… He marked my first essay as 6 and told me exactly the mistakes I was making… I acted upon his advice and ended up being marked 8 by him in my 5th essay.
And fortunately passed right after in the 4th attempt.
What I have gathered from my experience is that no matter how good your english is, British council will only pass essay that follow the pattern exactly. Secondly, no matter how much you practice, you need a teacher to tell you what you are doing wrong. Its better to get your essays checked by someone qualified before you have another attempt.