Task 1 and Task 2 in 60 minutes
You have one hour for two tasks.
- Task 1 (at least 150 words, about 20 minutes). On the Academic test you describe a graph, table, chart, process or map, picking out the main trends and comparisons. On General Training you write a letter: formal, semi-formal or informal, depending on who you are writing to.
- Task 2 (at least 250 words, about 40 minutes). An essay responding to an opinion, a discussion, a problem and solution, an advantages and disadvantages question, or a two-part question. Task 2 counts for more than Task 1, so never let Task 1 steal its time.
The four criteria
Both tasks are marked on four equally weighted criteria. Knowing them changes how you practise.
- Task Achievement / Task Response: did you answer the actual question fully, with a clear position and relevant, developed ideas? For Academic Task 1, did you include an overview?
- Coherence and Cohesion: is your writing logically organised, with clear paragraphs and linking that feels natural rather than forced?
- Lexical Resource: do you use a range of vocabulary accurately, including less common words, with correct spelling?
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy: do you use a mix of sentence structures, and how many errors are there?
Habits we often see from Doha candidates
Doha's candidates come from dozens of language backgrounds, and each brings strengths. Arabic speakers often have rich vocabulary from formal education; South Asian and Filipino professionals often write confidently after years of workplace English. But a few habits come up again and again.
- Memorised openings. Phrases like "In this contemporary era of globalisation" or "This is a burning issue in today's world" are recognised instantly by examiners and add nothing. Paraphrase the question and state your view in two sentences.
- Over-long introductions. Some students spend 80 words introducing the topic and leave the main body thin. Keep the introduction short and put your effort into developing the body paragraphs.
- Office English in essays. Expressions common in Gulf workplaces, such as "kindly do the needful", "revert back" for "reply", "prepone", or "as per", are understood in an office but are not standard in IELTS writing.
- Very long sentences joined with "and". This is common for writers whose first language strings clauses together naturally, including many Arabic speakers. Two clear sentences are better than one sprawling one.
- Articles and plurals. Missing or extra "a" and "the", and uncountable nouns like "informations" or "advices", are frequent among speakers of Arabic, Nepali, Hindi, Malayalam, Tagalog and many other languages.
- The wrong tone in GT letters. Writing "Dear Sir/Madam" to a friend, or "Hey, what's up" to a landlord, will lower your score. Match the tone to the reader.
- No overview in Academic Task 1. Listing every number without a summary sentence about the main trends is one of the quickest ways to cap your Task Achievement score.
None of this is about intelligence or ability. These are habits, and habits change with targeted feedback.
How AI feedback and teacher sessions help
The fastest way to improve Writing is to write, get specific feedback, rewrite and repeat.
IELTS Learning has 104 Task 1 and Task 2 prompts, including Academic charts, tables, processes and maps, General Training letters and every essay type. After you submit, you receive an AI-estimated band for each of the four criteria with comments explaining what is holding each one back. Because it is quick, you can write an essay on Tuesday evening, read the feedback, and rewrite it on Wednesday while the comments are fresh.
AI feedback is useful, but it is not a human examiner. For a second opinion, Book a Teacher gives you a 1-to-1 online session of about 20 minutes from $5, where an IELTS teacher can go through an essay with you, explain a criterion you keep losing marks on, or show you how to develop an idea properly.
A practical Writing week in Doha
Evenings after work are short, especially in summer when everything shifts later. This routine fits most schedules:
- Day 1: one Task 2 essay, timed at 40 minutes.
- Day 2: read the AI feedback and rewrite the weakest paragraph.
- Day 3: one Task 1, timed at 20 minutes.
- Day 4: study a Writing chapter in Study Notes and review your Mistake Notebook.
- Day off: a full 60-minute Writing paper, both tasks together.
You can try a Writing task free on the practice tests page, and the blog has weekly tips on essay structure. Full Access, $12 for 2 months, unlocks every prompt and all AI feedback.