Your IELTS Writing band can feel like a black box, but it is not. Every answer is judged on four named criteria, each worth exactly a quarter of your score for that task. Once you know what each criterion rewards and how the four combine, you can stop guessing at your band and start targeting it.
The four criteria examiners actually use
Both Writing tasks are marked on the same four areas, and they carry equal weight. The first criterion is named slightly differently for each task, but the idea is the same.
- Task Achievement (Task 1) or Task Response (Task 2): whether you fully do what the question asks. In Task 1 that means a clear overview and accurate key features; in Task 2 it means a clear position you develop and support the whole way through. This is the criterion most candidates underperform on.
- Coherence and Cohesion: how logically your answer is organised. Examiners want clear paragraphs, one central idea each, and linking that guides the reader. Stacking up 'moreover, furthermore, in addition' actually works against you here.
- Lexical Resource: the range, precision, and naturalness of your vocabulary, including some less common words and collocations used correctly. Spelling and word-formation errors are counted under this criterion too.
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy: whether you use a variety of sentence structures and how many of your sentences are error free. Safe, simple writing with no mistakes still caps your band, because 'range' is half of the criterion.
How four scores become one band
Your band for a task is simply the average of the four criterion scores, rounded to the nearest whole or half band. The examiner does not add a bonus for a strong opening or deduct for a single weak line. They match each criterion to its descriptor, then average.
So if you score 7 for Task Response, 7 for Coherence, 6 for Lexical Resource, and 6 for Grammar, your task band is (7 + 7 + 6 + 6) divided by 4, which is 6.5. You can model any combination with our IELTS band score calculator.
One rounding rule is worth knowing: averages that land on a quarter round up. A 6.25 average becomes 6.5, and a 6.75 average becomes 7. That is why lifting your single weakest criterion by one band often pulls your whole score up half a band.
The same idea at Band 6 and Band 7
The clearest way to see the criteria in action is to watch one sentence improve. Here is a typical Band 6 supporting sentence:
Nowadays many people use cars and this is a big problem for the environment because cars give a lot of pollution.Band 6
And the same idea rewritten at Band 7:
The sharp rise in private car ownership has become a serious environmental problem, largely because exhaust emissions are a major source of urban air pollution.Band 7
The ideas are identical. What moved is Lexical Resource ('sharp rise', 'private car ownership', 'exhaust emissions') and Grammatical Range (one accurate complex sentence in place of two loosely joined simple ones). Nothing exotic, just precise and controlled. That is the texture of a 7, and our Band 7 guide breaks down the rest of the jump.
Task 1 and Task 2 are not weighted equally
Your overall Writing band combines both tasks, but Task 2 counts for roughly twice as much as Task 1. In practice, your overall score sits much closer to your Task 2 band than your Task 1 band.
The strategic takeaway: never polish a chart description while leaving your essay rushed. If you are short on time, protect Task 2. Spend about 20 minutes on Task 1 and the full 40 on Task 2, which is the split the timing is designed around. You can browse real prompts for each on our Task 1 and Task 2 pages.
Where candidates lose the most marks
Two leaks account for most stalled scores.
- Task Response: not answering every part of the question, or sitting on the fence instead of committing. A clear, consistent position is the backbone of Band 7 and above.
- Grammatical Range: writing only safe, simple sentences. They may be accurate, but with no complex structures the 'range' half of the criterion holds you down. The fix is to mix in a few controlled complex sentences, not to make everything elaborate.
If you want to see exactly which of the four criteria is capping your band, you can paste an essay into our grader and get a score for each, judged against the same four descriptors an examiner uses. Reading a few model answers with the band breakdown shown is another fast way to calibrate your own writing.