The Writing test in brief
You have 60 minutes for two tasks.
- Task 1 (at least 150 words). Academic candidates describe a chart, table, process diagram or map. General Training candidates write a letter: formal, semi-formal or informal.
- Task 2 (at least 250 words). An essay in response to a point of view, argument or problem. Task 2 counts for more of your Writing band, so give it about 40 minutes.
Both are marked on four criteria: Task Achievement (Task 1) or Task Response (Task 2), Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy.
Why engineers and science graduates from Trichy plateau at 6
Graduates of NIT Tiruchirappalli and the city's many engineering and science colleges have usually written plenty of lab reports and project documents. That training helps with Task 1 data, but it can hurt Task 2. Technical writing is impersonal and list-like; an IELTS essay needs a clear position, developed reasons and examples. A common pattern is an essay with five short paragraphs, each making a new point without explaining any of them. That costs Task Response and Coherence and Cohesion.
Arts and humanities graduates from Bharathidasan University colleges often have the opposite profile: fluent, ideas-rich essays that sometimes drift away from the exact question. Both groups benefit from the same habit, which is planning for three minutes before writing a word.
Common mistakes in Indian students' IELTS Writing
These are not about intelligence or effort. They are habits picked up from school essays, guidebooks and everyday Indian English.
- Memorised openings. Sentences like "In this contemporary era, it is a debatable topic" are recognised immediately and add nothing. Examiners reward language that responds to the actual question.
- Very long introductions. Two sentences are enough: paraphrase the question, then give your position.
- Indian-English usage that is natural at home but marked as an error in IELTS: "revert back" (just revert or reply), "discuss about" (discuss), "return back", "cope up with" (cope with), "pass out of college" (graduate), and "do the needful".
- Overusing linking words. Moreover, furthermore and additionally at the start of every sentence lowers Coherence and Cohesion rather than raising it.
- Article errors, especially missing "the" and "a", which Tamil does not mark in the same way.
- No overview in Academic Task 1. Without one sentence summarising the main trend, Task Achievement is usually capped.
- Copying the question word for word. Copied words are not counted towards your total and do not show vocabulary.
Task 1 and Task 2 practice on IELTS Learning
We have 104 prompts covering Academic bar charts, line graphs, pie charts, tables, processes and maps, General Training letters of every type, and all the common Task 2 essay types: opinion, discussion, advantages and disadvantages, problem and solution, and two-part questions.
When you submit, you get an AI-estimated band for each of the four criteria, with feedback showing where you lost marks: an unclear position, weak paragraph development, repeated vocabulary or a pattern of grammar slips. You can rewrite the same essay and submit again, which is the fastest way to see whether your changes actually work.
When to book a teacher
AI feedback is fast and consistent, and good for practice volume. A human teacher is better at the bigger picture: why your ideas are not convincing, which of your habits matter most, and what to fix first. Many students book a 20-minute teacher session (from ₹299) after writing four or five essays, so the teacher can see a pattern rather than one bad day.
A four-week Writing routine for Trichy students
- Week 1: one Task 1 and one Task 2 every two days. Read the Study Notes chapter on Writing. Note your lowest criterion.
- Week 2: focus only on that criterion. If it is Task Response, practise planning; if it is Grammatical Range and Accuracy, use English Improvement for articles, tenses and complex sentences.
- Week 3: timed full Writing sections, 60 minutes, typed on a laptop. Book a teacher session.
- Week 4: two full mocks, and rewrite your weakest essay from each.
Typing matters if you take the computer-delivered test. If you rarely type long texts in English, practise at the keyboard from week one, as typing speed can quietly cost you the last 50 words of Task 2.
Register free to try a Writing prompt, or read our weekly IELTS tips for model planning methods.