IELTS Writing Band Descriptors: How Examiners Score You

You have been practising your IELTS writing for weeks. You time yourself, you write full essays, you check your grammar. But your band score stays stubbornly at 6.0 or 6.5, and you cannot figure out why.

Here is the thing most students miss: practising more does not automatically lead to a higher band. What actually moves the needle is understanding how examiners score your writing. Once you know exactly what they are looking for, every practice session becomes targeted and purposeful.

This guide breaks down the four official IELTS writing band descriptors in plain language, explains what separates a band 6 from a band 7, and shows you the common mistakes that quietly cost students marks every day.

The Four Band Descriptors: What Examiners Actually Look For

Every piece of IELTS writing, whether it is a Task 1 report or a Task 2 essay, is assessed against four criteria. Each one carries equal weight in your final writing score.

1. Task Achievement (Task 2) / Task Response (Task 1)

This criterion asks one fundamental question: did you actually do what the question asked?

For Task 2, this means fully addressing all parts of the prompt. Many questions contain two or three sub-questions, and students who answer only the most obvious part leave marks on the table. At band 6, a response typically addresses the task but may only partially cover one of its parts. At band 7, all parts of the task are clearly and fully addressed, with a well-developed position supported by relevant ideas.

For Task 1, examiners check whether you have accurately described the key features or trends in the data, and whether you have included an overview. At band 6, the overview may be unclear or underdeveloped. At band 7, a clear and accurate overview is present alongside well-selected details.

2. Coherence and Cohesion

This is about how your writing flows. Can a reader follow your argument from the introduction to the conclusion without getting lost? Are your ideas logically organised?

At band 6, ideas are generally arranged in a logical order, but paragraphing may not always be consistent, and linking words may feel mechanical or repetitive. At band 7, the writing flows naturally, paragraphs are used skilfully, and cohesive devices are used accurately and varied enough that they do not draw attention to themselves.

3. Lexical Resource

This criterion covers your vocabulary: your range, your accuracy, and your ability to express ideas with precision.

At band 6, students typically use an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, but errors in word choice or spelling appear, and there may be noticeable repetition. At band 7, a wider range of vocabulary is used with awareness of style and collocation. Errors are rare and do not cause confusion.

4. Grammatical Range and Accuracy

This looks at the variety of sentence structures you use and how accurately you use them.

At band 6, a mix of simple and complex sentences is present, but errors in complex structures are common and may occasionally affect clarity. At band 7, a variety of complex structures is used with mostly good control, and errors, when they appear, are minor and infrequent.

Task 1 vs Task 2: Understanding the Weighting

One fact that surprises many students: Task 1 and Task 2 are not scored equally.

Task 2 carries twice the weight of Task 1 in your overall writing band score. This means Task 2 is worth approximately two-thirds of your writing result, and Task 1 accounts for the remaining one-third.

The practical implication is significant. If you spend too long on Task 1 at the expense of Task 2, you are gambling with the higher-value section. As a rule of thumb, aim for around 20 minutes on Task 1 and 40 minutes on Task 2.

The four band descriptors apply to both tasks, but the first criterion is labelled differently depending on the task:

• Academic Task 1 asks you to describe visual data such as graphs, charts, maps, or diagrams. The examiner is checking whether you have selected and reported the key features accurately, with a clear overview.
• General Training Task 1 is a letter writing task. The examiner assesses whether the purpose of the letter is clear, the tone is appropriate (formal, semi-formal, or informal), and all bullet points in the prompt are addressed.

Understanding which version of Task 1 you are sitting is essential to knowing what "task achievement" actually means for your response.

Common Mistakes That Drop Your Band Score

Knowing the descriptors is one thing. Recognising how everyday errors map to those descriptors is where real improvement begins.

Under Task Achievement:

• Answering only the most obvious part of a two-part question and leaving the second part vague or absent
• Taking a position in the introduction but drifting away from it in the body paragraphs
• Writing a Task 1 report with no clear overview statement

Under Coherence and Cohesion:

• Starting every sentence with a linking word ("Furthermore," "Moreover," "In addition") to the point where it feels unnatural
• Writing one long, unbroken body paragraph instead of separating distinct ideas
• Using reference words like "this" or "it" with no clear noun to refer back to

Under Lexical Resource:

• Repeating the same key word from the question title throughout the essay instead of paraphrasing
• Using high-level vocabulary incorrectly, which signals to the examiner that word choice is not fully controlled
• Ignoring less obvious vocabulary errors such as incorrect prepositions or wrong collocations (e.g. "do a decision" instead of "make a decision")

Under Grammatical Range and Accuracy:

• Only using simple sentences because they feel "safe," which limits the score ceiling regardless of how accurate they are
• Attempting complex structures such as relative clauses or conditionals but getting them structurally wrong
• Inconsistent tense usage, particularly when describing trends in Task 1

How to Use the Descriptors to Self-Assess

Before submitting any practice essay for feedback, try scoring it yourself using the four criteria. Ask these questions:

1. Task Achievement: Did I address every part of the question? Is my position clear throughout?
2. Coherence and Cohesion: Can someone follow my argument easily? Are my paragraphs well-structured?
3. Lexical Resource: Did I use a range of vocabulary accurately? Did I rely too heavily on any one word?
4. Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Did I attempt a variety of sentence structures? Were they mostly correct?

This process trains you to read your own writing the way an examiner does. Over time, you start catching your own weaknesses before they become patterns. Keep a simple log of which descriptors you score yourself lowest on, and make those the focus of your next practice session.

The Fastest Way to Close the Gap to Band 7

Self-assessment builds awareness, but nothing accelerates improvement faster than expert feedback that is mapped directly to the band descriptors. That is exactly what the MasterIELTS Writing Course is designed to deliver. Expert-led video lessons break down each descriptor in detail, and personalised essay feedback shows you precisely where marks are being lost and how to recover them.

If you are serious about reaching band 7 or above, the MasterIELTS Premium plan gives you access to one-to-one tutor support, where your essays are reviewed against the official criteria and returned with actionable, targeted guidance. You can also sharpen your skills further with full practice tests that simulate real exam conditions.

Understanding how you are scored is the first step. Applying that knowledge with expert support is what gets you there.

Ready to see exactly where your writing score stands? Explore the MasterIELTS Writing Course and start your journey to band 7 today.