What IELTS Examiners Actually Look For in Task 2 (Criterion by Criterion)

So here is a more useful version. Your Task 2 essay is assessed on four criteria, each worth 25% of your writing band. For each one there is a question the reader is effectively answering as they go. This is what those questions are, and what tips the answer either side of Band 7.

Figure 1

The four questions a reader is answering

Task Response

25%

Did this person answer my question, and go deep enough?

Coherence and Cohesion

25%

Can I follow this without effort?

Lexical Resource

25%

How wide is this vocabulary, and how precisely is it used?

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

25%

Does this writer control complex structures, and how often are sentences clean?

Each card jumps to that criterion. None of the four asks whether your English is good — they ask four narrower questions.

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1 Task Response — "Did this person answer my question, and go deep enough?"

Task Response is not about English at all. It's about whether your essay does the job the prompt set.

The reader is checking three things:

Are all parts covered? A discussion essay demands both views and your opinion — three components. A double question demands both questions answered. Miss a component and the criterion is capped, however well written the rest is.

Is the position clear and consistent? Not just present in the introduction — sustained. If body paragraph two reads as if it disagrees with the introduction, the reader's confidence in your position drops.

Are the ideas developed or just listed? This is the usual dividing line between 6 and 7. Band 6 ideas are relevant but underdeveloped. Band 7 ideas are extended and supported. In practice: two ideas explored properly beat five ideas mentioned.

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2 Coherence and Cohesion — "Can I follow this without effort?"

This criterion is about the reader's experience, not about linking words.

Does the essay progress? Introduction, a body that advances rather than circles, a conclusion that lands. Essays that restate the same point in three outfits stall here.

Does each paragraph have one clear topic? Band 7 explicitly requires "a clear central topic in each paragraph." Two topics in one paragraph reads as unfocused even when both are good.

Are connections accurate? Cohesive devices are counted for appropriacy, not quantity. On the other hand with no contrast following is a fault, not a mark earned. Band 7 tolerates some over-use — it does not tolerate misuse.

Is referencing clear? Every this, they and it should have an obvious antecedent. Unclear referencing forces the reader back a sentence, and that friction is exactly what this criterion measures.

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3 Lexical Resource — "How wide is this vocabulary, and how precisely is it used?"

Two dimensions, weighted together: range and accuracy.

Range is whether you can go beyond high-frequency words when the topic needs it, and whether you repeat the same word where alternatives exist.

Precision and collocation is whether the word chosen is the one the sentence needed, in a combination a fluent writer would use. Make a decision is right; do a decision is not, though both are simple words.

Reads as fluent

Make a decision

Same words, wrong pairing

Do a decision

Collocation is scored here, and neither word in either version is a difficult one.

Errors in spelling and word formation are counted here — and they matter less than most candidates fear. Band 7 explicitly permits occasional errors. What it does not permit is a range so narrow the essay reads as plain throughout.

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4 Grammatical Range and Accuracy — "Does this writer control complex structures, and how often are sentences clean?"

Both halves of the name are assessed, and most candidates work on only one.

Range: do complex structures appear, and in variety? Relative clauses, conditionals, passives, participle phrases. An essay of fifteen accurate simple sentences sits at Band 6 — accuracy without range doesn't reach 7.

Accuracy: measured as density, not absence. The reader is effectively asking what proportion of these sentences is error-free? Band 7 requires frequent error-free sentences while allowing a few errors to persist. Band 8 needs the majority clean.

Punctuation counts — comma splices, run-ons and missing sentence boundaries are marked here and are more damaging than a missing article, because they interrupt reading.

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How the four combine

Your Task 2 band is essentially the average of the four criteria, rounded to the nearest half band. Which means the criteria don't compete — they compound. Three sevens and a six is a 6.5. One weak criterion sets your ceiling regardless of the other three.

7 7 7 6 Task 2 band 6.5

The coral tile is the ceiling. Lifting any of the three sevens changes nothing until it moves.

The practical consequence: don't practise "writing." Practise your weakest criterion. Most candidates stuck at 6.0 or 6.5 have one clear anchor, usually Task Response or Grammar, and no idea which one it is.

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Reading your own essay like an examiner

After your next practice essay, ask the four questions in order:

Honest answers to those four will tell you more than any band prediction.

The difficulty, of course, is that self-assessment is exactly what nobody can do reliably on their own work. That's the gap PrepForIELTS fills: your essay marked against all four criteria, with the evidence for each score highlighted in your own sentences.