Two tasks in one hour
The Writing test lasts 60 minutes and has two tasks.
- Task 1 needs at least 150 words. In Academic, you describe a chart, table, process diagram or map. In General Training, you write a letter, which may be formal, semi-formal or informal.
- Task 2 needs at least 250 words. It is an essay responding to a point of view, argument or problem, and it is the same type of task for both tracks.
Task 2 counts for more than Task 1, so most students spend about 20 minutes on Task 1 and 40 on Task 2. Writing fewer than the minimum words can lower your band.
The four criteria
Each task is marked on four criteria, equally weighted:
- Task Achievement (Task 1) or Task Response (Task 2): did you answer every part of the question, with a clear position in Task 2 and a clear overview in Academic Task 1?
- Coherence and Cohesion: are your ideas in a logical order, in clear paragraphs, with linking that helps rather than decorates?
- Lexical Resource: do you use a range of vocabulary accurately, with natural word combinations?
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy: do you use a mix of sentence structures, with few errors?
Knowing which criterion is pulling your score down is more useful than writing more essays blindly.
Habits that hold Indian candidates back
These are common across India, including among strong students in Baroda. None of them is a reason for embarrassment; they are just habits worth unlearning for an exam marked on international English.
- Memorised phrases. Lines such as "In this modern era of science and technology" or "Every coin has two sides" are easy for examiners to spot and add nothing. Write a plain, specific opening instead.
- Over-long introductions. Two sentences are enough: paraphrase the question and state your position. Save your words for the body paragraphs.
- Indian-English usage. "Revert back" should be "reply" or "get back to"; "discuss about" is just "discuss"; "prepone" is not standard outside India; "do the needful" sounds odd in an IELTS letter. In GT letters, avoid opening with "Myself Rohan" or similar; write "My name is" or "I am writing to".
- Translated emphasis. Gujarati and Hindi speakers sometimes carry over words like "only" or "itself" for emphasis ("I will do it today only"). In English that can change the meaning.
- Listing, not developing. Five ideas in one paragraph score lower than two ideas explained with a reason and an example.
Task 1 for Vadodara's engineers and pharmacy students
Many Vadodara candidates come from chemical, mechanical or pharmacy backgrounds, and Academic Task 1 process diagrams can feel familiar. That helps, but there is a trap: the task is to describe, not to explain the science. If the diagram shows a manufacturing process, report the stages shown in order, using the passive voice where natural ("the mixture is then heated"), and do not add technical knowledge from your work at a plant in Nandesari or Por.
For charts and tables, the most common weakness is a missing overview. Before details, write one or two sentences giving the main trends or the biggest differences. Without it, Task Achievement is often limited to around band 5 or 6.
General Training candidates applying to join family in the UK or Canada should practise all three letter tones. A complaint to a landlord and a thank-you note to a friend need very different language.
How AI feedback and teacher sessions help
IELTS Learning has 104 Task 1 and Task 2 prompts across both tracks, covering charts, tables, processes, maps, letters and every common essay type. When you submit a response, you get an AI-estimated band for each of the four criteria, with feedback on what to improve.
That speed is the main advantage: you can write on Monday, read your feedback straight away and rewrite on Tuesday, rather than waiting a week for a marked essay. Use it to spot patterns, such as a criterion that is always half a band lower than the rest.
AI feedback is an estimate. For a human view, Book a Teacher gives you about 20 minutes 1-to-1 with an IELTS teacher, from ₹299. Students often bring one essay they have already improved using AI feedback and ask the teacher what is still stopping it from reaching the next band.
A weekly IELTS Writing practice routine
- Monday: write one Task 2 essay under timed conditions (40 minutes).
- Tuesday: read the feedback and rewrite the weakest paragraph.
- Wednesday: one Task 1, timed at 20 minutes.
- Thursday: study one Study Notes chapter, such as overviews or paragraph structure, and add new collocations to your flashcards.
- Weekend: one full Writing section inside a mock test.
Five focused sessions like this are realistic even with MSU semester exams or a day job. Start with a free prompt by creating an account, and keep your IELTS Writing practice going with Full Access at ₹999 for 2 months.