How to Improve Your IELTS Writing Task 2 Score

Writing Task 2 counts for twice as much as Task 1, so it makes up about two thirds of your Writing band. Moving from Band 6 to Band 8 is less about fancy words and more about answering the question fully, explaining your ideas and making few mistakes. Here is what to work on.

Understanding the Band Descriptors

Examiners mark Task 2 on four equal criteria:

• Task Response: how fully you answer every part of the question and support your position
• Coherence and Cohesion: how clearly your essay is organised and how well ideas connect
• Lexical Resource: how precise and varied your vocabulary is
• Grammatical Range and Accuracy: how varied and correct your grammar is

Strategy 1: Master the Essay Structure

Introduction Template

Strategy 2: Develop Ideas Fully

Band 6 essays often state an idea and move on. Band 8 essays explain every idea:

• Explanation: why the point is true or relevant
• Example: a specific, realistic case
• Result: what happens because of it

Strategy 3: Choose Precise Vocabulary

Examiners reward the right word, not the longest one. Replace vague words with words that say exactly what you mean, and only use words you are sure about:

• Instead of "good", say what kind of good: affordable, reliable, healthy
• Instead of "bad", be specific: harmful, expensive, unfair
• Instead of "important", explain why: essential for safety, a major cause of
• Learn words in pairs that go together, such as pose a risk or raise awareness

Strategy 4: Use a Range of Grammar

Show variety, but keep control. A few accurate complex sentences beat many broken ones:

• Conditionals: "If governments invested more in education, the economy would benefit."
• Relative clauses: "Technology, which has changed how we communicate, also raises privacy concerns."
• Passive voice: "It is widely believed that..."
• Participle clauses: "Having considered both views, I believe..."

Strategy 5: Connect Ideas Clearly

Linking words help, but using too many, or using them wrongly, lowers your Coherence and Cohesion score. Use them only where they show a real link:

Strategy 6: Cover Both Sides (Discussion Essays)

For "discuss both views and give your opinion" questions, you must:

• Explain both views fairly
• Give each view its own paragraph
• Support each view with an example
• Make your own opinion clear

Strategy 7: Write Enough Words

Minimum: 250 words. Aim for about 270 to 290.

Essays under 250 words lose marks for Task Response. Writing far more does not raise your score and leaves less time to check for mistakes.

Strategy 8: Plan Before You Write

Spend 3 to 5 minutes planning:

1. Work out the question type (opinion, discussion, problem and solution, and so on)
2. Note two main ideas
3. Decide your position
4. Choose an example for each idea
5. Decide what goes in each paragraph

Strategy 9: Avoid Common Mistakes

• Informal language: avoid slang and contractions such as "don't"
• Repetition: do not repeat the same idea in different words
• Going off-topic: every paragraph should answer the question
• Memorised phrases: examiners notice learned templates and do not credit them
• Spelling errors: leave 2 to 3 minutes to check your essay

Strategy 10: Practise with Feedback

Practice helps most when you know what went wrong. BAND9AI's AI-powered Writing assessment scores each of the four criteria, so you can see which one is holding your band back. Its scores are practice estimates, not official results.

Sample Band 8 Essay Structure

Conclusion

To move from Band 6 to Band 8 in Task 2, answer every part of the question, explain each idea with an example, choose precise words and keep your grammar under control. Practise under the real 40-minute limit and check which criterion is lowest each time. Learn more about our rubric-aligned practice feedback.