How IELTS Writing is being Scored

You should know that although the general training and academic writing task1 may be different, they are still scored in pretty much the same manner.  Task2 is the same for both general training and academic module.

If you already know which IELTS module you need to take, you can start practicing your writing.  If you’re taking the academic module, you can start looking and interpreting graphs, charts and maps; if you’re taking the general training module, you can start practicing writing letters to people around you.

Knowing what to focus your efforts on will not only lessen the stress you’re probably feeling right now, it will also help speed up your improvements.  The examiners are looking for detailed performance descriptors to help them asses your score.

Task Achievement – this part is for the first task of the writing test and it’s pretty straight forward. You are given a number of tasks, meeting the tasks would then give you a higher possibility to attain a better score.  This would of course include the minimum number of words, 150 words for the first task and 250 for the second

Task Response – this is with regards to the second task.  In the second task, there are a number of possible things they may ask you to do: you may be asked whether you agree or disagree, cause and effect, discuss 2 views and you are always asked what your opinion is and to give relevant examples.  If you have to choose a side, do so and stick with it.  Whichever stand you take will not matter, just do whatever it is being asked of you.

Coherence and Cohesion – this part pertains to how you present your ideas, whether they are in sequence and logical.  The flow also falls under here, using connecting words or phrases will help with your transition from one idea to the next.  Using paragraphs properly would also fall under coherence and cohesion.

Lexical resource – vocabulary, this part test the range, flexibility and accuracy of your vocabulary.  The simplest and probably the most important of lexical resource would be spelling; try not to get it wrong. 

Grammatical range and accuracy – combine some simple and complex sentence structure, to maximize this aspect.  Please don’t forget to use punctuations, and use them properly.

Here is a link to the public version of your writing band descriptors

Task 1

Task 2

You can google “punctuation rules” for a list of sites that may help familiarize you.

Here’s one

For other tips, check out the Writing Category