How Is IELTS Writing Scored? The 4 Criteria, Explained

The building block: four criteria per task

Every IELTS Writing response is marked against four criteria, each worth 25 percent of that task. For Task 1 the criteria are Task Achievement, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. For Task 2 the first criterion is called Task Response instead of Task Achievement, but the structure is identical.

An examiner reads your response and assigns a band from 0 to 9 for each of the four criteria. These four numbers are then averaged to produce the band for that individual task. This happens separately for Task 1 and Task 2.

• Task Achievement / Task Response: did you fully answer the question?
• Coherence and Cohesion: is it logically organised and easy to follow?
• Lexical Resource: is your vocabulary wide, precise, and accurate?
• Grammatical Range and Accuracy: are your structures varied and correct?

Step one: averaging the four criteria

Within a single task, the four criterion scores are simply averaged. Because each criterion is scored in whole bands, the average often lands on a decimal. Consider a Task 2 essay scored as follows.

The sum is 26, and 26 divided by 4 equals 6.5. So this essay scores Band 6.5 for Task 2. The key insight is that one weak criterion drags the whole task down. If the Lexical Resource above were a 7 instead of a 6, the average would rise to 6.75, which rounds up to 7.

Step two: why Task 2 is weighted twice as much

This is the part most candidates get wrong. Task 1 and Task 2 do not count equally toward your overall Writing band. Task 2 is weighted twice as heavily as Task 1. There are good reasons for this: Task 2 is longer, at a minimum of 250 words versus 150 for Task 1, it demands more developed argumentation, and it better reflects the academic and professional writing the test is designed to predict.

In practical terms, your overall Writing score is a weighted average where Task 2 contributes two parts and Task 1 contributes one part. The formula is: overall equals Task 1 band plus two times Task 2 band, all divided by three.

Notice rows one and two: the same two bands of 6 and 7 produce different results depending on which task they land on. A strong Task 2 and weaker Task 1 gives 6.67, while the reverse gives only 6.33. This is why examiners and teachers advise spending roughly 40 minutes on Task 2 and 20 minutes on Task 1, and why Task 2 should never be rushed or left unfinished.

Step three: half-band rounding

The weighted average rarely lands exactly on a whole or half band, so IELTS applies a rounding rule. Final module scores are reported in whole and half bands only, for example 6.0, 6.5, or 7.0.

• If the weighted average ends in .25, it is rounded up to the next half band. For example 6.25 becomes 6.5.
• If it ends in .75, it is rounded up to the next whole band. For example 6.75 becomes 7.0.
• Values are rounded to the nearest half band, and a score that falls exactly between rounds up rather than down.

Applying this to the table above: 6.67 rounds to 7.0, 6.33 rounds to 6.5, and 6.83 rounds to 7.0. This rounding step is why tiny improvements in one criterion can push you across a band boundary, and why candidates so often sit at 6.5 needing just a fraction more to reach 7.

How this changes your strategy

Once you understand the arithmetic, smarter preparation follows naturally. Because the task band is an average, your weakest criterion is your ceiling, so raising a lagging criterion from 6 to 7 does more than polishing one already at 7. Because Task 2 counts double, it deserves the majority of your time and effort. And because of half-band rounding, being just under a boundary is a solvable problem, not a wall.

• Identify your weakest of the four criteria and target it first.
• Protect Task 2: finish it, meet 250 words, and develop your ideas fully.
• Do not sacrifice Task 1 completely, but do not let it eat Task 2 time either.
• Treat every criterion as recoverable, since half a band can decide your result.

For context, most universities require an overall band of 6.0 to 7.0, often with a minimum of 6.0 or 6.5 in each module including Writing. Given that the global mean Writing score sits around 5.5 to 6.0, understanding the scoring formula is a real competitive advantage among the roughly 3.98 million people who take IELTS each year.

A worked example from start to finish

It helps to trace one candidate through the entire calculation so you can see how the pieces fit together. Imagine a candidate whose two tasks are marked as shown below. This is a realistic profile for someone sitting right on the 6.5 to 7.0 boundary.

First, average each task. Task 1 is 6 plus 7 plus 6 plus 7, which is 26, divided by 4 equals 6.5. Task 2 is 7 plus 7 plus 6 plus 7, which is 27, divided by 4 equals 6.75, and a single task band is rounded to the nearest half, giving 7.0 for Task 2.

Next, apply the double weighting for Task 2. The overall is Task 1 plus two times Task 2, all divided by three: 6.5 plus 14.0 equals 20.5, divided by 3 equals 6.83. Finally, apply half-band rounding: 6.83 rounds to 7.0. So this candidate walks away with an overall Writing band of 7.0, even though two of their eight criterion scores were only 6s. The lesson is that a strong Task 2 does most of the heavy lifting.

Common myths about IELTS Writing scoring

Several persistent myths lead candidates to prepare in the wrong way. Clearing them up saves wasted effort.

• Myth: a longer essay scores higher. In reality, length beyond the minimum of 150 and 250 words is not directly rewarded, and padding often introduces errors that lower Lexical Resource and Grammar.
• Myth: rare, complicated words impress examiners. Precision and correct collocation matter far more than difficulty, and a misused word actively costs marks.
• Myth: Task 1 and Task 2 count equally, so splitting time evenly is fine. Task 2 is worth double, so it deserves roughly 40 of your 60 minutes.
• Myth: one brilliant paragraph can carry the whole essay. Each task band is an average across four criteria, so consistency beats a single showcase moment.