IELTS Writing guides

How the marking actually works, written plainly. These explain the publicly published assessment criteria in our own words — they do not reproduce official descriptor text.

• How IELTS Writing is scored
  IELTS Writing is marked on four equally weighted criteria, and Task 2 counts double. How the four scores combine into your final band, and how the rounding works.
• What Band 7 actually requires in IELTS Task 2
  Band 7 in IELTS Writing Task 2 is not about advanced vocabulary. It is about answering the whole question, controlling complex sentences, and producing frequent error-free sentences.
• IELTS Writing word count: why 150 and 250 matter
  Writing under the IELTS minimum word count is penalised under Task Achievement. What the limits are, what happens if you go under, and whether writing more helps.
• Common mistakes in IELTS Academic Task 1
  The most frequent Academic Task 1 errors: no overview, describing every data point, giving opinions, misreading the chart, and using the wrong tense.
• Band 7 vs Band 8: what actually changes
  The gap between Band 7 and Band 8 is not fewer mistakes. Band 8 scripts contain errors. What actually separates the two bands, and what does not move you between them.
• Coherence and cohesion: what is actually being marked
  Coherence and cohesion is a quarter of your Writing score. Paragraphing, linking words, referencing, and why adding more connectors usually lowers the band.
• General Training Task 1: the letter
  Tone, the three bullet points, openings and sign-offs, and the mistakes that cost most.
• The five Task 2 question types
  Opinion, discussion, advantages and disadvantages, problem and solution, two-part. What each one obliges you to deliver.
• How to write the Task 1 overview
  The single most expensive thing to omit in Academic Task 1. What belongs in it, what does not, and where it goes.
• Lexical Resource: precision, not rarity
  Why a misused rare word costs you twice, and why collocation is where non-native writing shows.
• Grammatical Range and Accuracy
  Range and accuracy are scored together, so long ambitious sentences with small errors score worse than shorter clean ones.
• Timing the 60 minutes
  Where the 60 minutes go, whether to write Task 2 first, and what to cut when you are already behind.