Two tasks, one hour
You have 60 minutes for both tasks, and you manage the time yourself.
- Task 1 (at least 150 words). In Academic, you describe a graph, table, chart, process or map. In General Training, you write a letter, which may be formal, semi-formal or informal.
- Task 2 (at least 250 words). An essay responding to a point of view, argument or problem. Task 2 counts for more than Task 1, so a common plan is about 20 minutes for Task 1 and 40 for Task 2.
IELTS Learning has 104 prompts covering Academic charts, tables, processes and maps, General Training letters, and every Task 2 essay type: opinion, discussion, advantages and disadvantages, problem and solution, and two-part questions.
The four criteria, in plain English
Each task is marked on four equally weighted criteria:
- Task Achievement / Task Response: Did you do exactly what was asked? In Task 1, did you give an overview? In Task 2, did you answer every part and make your position clear?
- Coherence and Cohesion: Is your writing logically organised, with clear paragraphs and natural linking?
- Lexical Resource: Do you use a good range of vocabulary accurately and appropriately?
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Do you use a variety of sentence structures with few errors?
Knowing your weakest criterion tells you what to practise. A strong vocabulary will not rescue an essay that misses half the question.
Common mistakes Indian candidates make, and how to fix them
These are not about ability; they are habits picked up at school, at work and from coaching templates. They are very fixable.
- Memorised phrases. Openers such as "In this era of globalisation" or "This is a burning issue in today's world" are easy for examiners to spot and add nothing. Write a direct sentence about the actual topic.
- Over-long introductions. Two sentences are enough: paraphrase the question and state your answer. Spend the words in your body paragraphs.
- Indian-English usage. Some expressions common in Indian offices and classrooms are not standard in IELTS writing: "revert back" (just "reply"), "discuss about" (just "discuss"), "cope up with" ("cope with"), "since three years" ("for three years"), "prepone" ("bring forward").
- Missing the Task 1 overview. Many Academic answers list numbers without ever saying what the main trends are.
- Sitting on the fence. In opinion essays, a clear position, kept throughout, scores better than "both sides are equally important".
- Writing too much. 400 words with more errors rarely beats 280 careful ones.
From office email to IELTS letter: a note for Mumbai professionals
If you work in one of Mumbai's banks, consultancies, IT firms or shipping companies, you probably write English every day. That helps, but corporate email style can work against you in General Training letters. Phrases such as "Please do the needful", "Kindly revert at the earliest" and "PFA" are familiar in many offices here but sound unnatural to an IELTS examiner.
Match the tone to the task. A letter to a friend should sound warm and relaxed; a complaint to a landlord should be polite but firm. Academic candidates applying for finance or analytics master's courses in the UK or Ireland face a different challenge: describing data clearly and briefly, without the commentary you might add in a work report.
How feedback speeds things up
You only improve Writing by writing, and then finding out what went wrong.
- AI feedback: submit any Task 1 or Task 2 answer and get an estimated band for each of the four criteria, with comments. You can rewrite and resubmit as often as you like, so your IELTS Writing Task 2 practice turns into a cycle of draft, feedback, rewrite.
- Teacher feedback: for a human view, use Book a Teacher for a 1-to-1 online session of about 20 minutes from ₹299. It is especially useful once you are stuck at a band and cannot see why.
- Study Notes and English Improvement: strategy chapters for both tasks, plus grammar and vocabulary practice aimed at the errors your feedback reveals.
A weekly IELTS Writing practice plan
- Two Task 2 essays a week, timed at 40 minutes, from different essay types.
- One or two Task 1 answers, timed at 20 minutes.
- One rewrite of your weakest essay after reading the feedback.
- Daily vocabulary from Daily Vocabulary, used in your next essay rather than just memorised.
Practise by typing if you will take the computer-delivered test, and by hand if you will take paper; your speed differs between the two.
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