IELTS Writing: From Band 6 to Band 7

Each task is marked on four criteria, weighted equally: Task Achievement (Task 1) or Task Response (Task 2), Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. A task's band is the average of its four, and Task 2 contributes twice as much as Task 1 to the Writing score. The quickest route to a 7 runs through Task 2.

One line in the descriptors matters more than any tip: “A script must fully fit the positive features of the descriptor at a particular level.” A criterion is not given 7 because most of the essay looks like a 7. Every positive feature in the band 7 description has to be there, so one weak habit can hold a criterion at 6 however good the rest is.

Band 7 is a common target for a reason. Australia's Proficient English, worth 10 points on a skilled visa, is 7 in each skill, and Canada's CLB 9 asks for 7.0 in Writing and earns a single applicant 31 Express Entry core points per ability, against 17 at CLB 7. The Australia and Canada guides have the detail.

At 6, one part of the question gets less attention than the others and the conclusion wobbles. At 7, every part is answered in proportion, your view is the same from the introduction to the conclusion, and each main idea is explained and backed up. Band 7 still forgives some over-generalising. It does not forgive a main idea that is stated and left there.

• Before you write, underline every part of the question. “Discuss both views and give your own opinion” has three parts, and an essay that argues both sides well but never gives the opinion has answered two.
• State your position in the introduction and keep it in the conclusion. A conclusion that surprises the reader is the “unclear, unjustified” conclusion of band 6.
• Two main ideas, fully explained, beat four that are listed. For each one: the claim, why it is true, and one specific example.
• Cut examples that are true but do not prove your point. They are the “less relevant” support band 6 describes.

The word to notice at band 6 is “mechanical”: cohesion that comes from a linking word at the start of sentence after sentence (Firstly, Moreover, Furthermore, In addition) rather than from the ideas themselves. Band 7 names reference and substitution, the quieter kind of linking: this, these, such, the former, a pronoun that points back, a noun that sums up the sentence before. Each paragraph has one central topic, and its sentences come in an order the reader can follow without help.

• Give each body paragraph one job, and say what it is in the first sentence.
• Count your linking words. If most sentences open with one, delete half and read it again; the logic usually still holds.
• Link through reference instead: “This rise…”, “Such schemes…”, “the second group”.
• Check that every “it”, “this” and “they” points to one clear thing. Unclear reference is a band 6 feature by name.

Band 7 vocabulary is precise before it is rare. A less common word counts when it is the right word in the right company, which is what collocation means: heavy traffic, a sharp rise, strong evidence. A rare word used slightly wrongly is the band 6 risk-taker. Memorised phrases do worse still: the band 4 description names “inappropriate use of lexical chunks (e.g. memorised phrases, formulaic language…)”.

• Learn words with their partners: not just “impact” but “have a significant impact on”.
• Choose the precise word over the impressive one. “Traffic congestion” beats “vehicular overcrowding”.
• Drop opening templates such as “It is an undeniable fact that…”. They add words, not evidence.
• Keep a list of your own repeated word-form errors (economic or economical, benefit or beneficial) and check for them in the last few minutes.

The test at band 7 is “error-free sentences are frequent”. Complex sentences only help when they come out right: long sentences that each carry a mistake are the band 6 pattern, where the complex structures are less accurate than the simple ones. A 7 does not need perfect grammar. It needs many clean sentences, complex ones among them: relative clauses, conditionals, passives, and clauses that begin with although or while.

• After writing, go sentence by sentence and count how many have no error at all. That count is what band 7 measures.
• Use the handful of structures you control well, not every structure you know.
• Punctuation is marked here too. Look for commas joining two complete sentences; each one is an error.
• Find your three most frequent errors in marked essays (articles, agreement, tenses) and hunt only for those when you check.

The descriptors print some features in bold, and bold “indicates negative features that will limit a rating”. In Task 2, two of them sit at band 5: “The main parts of the prompt are incompletely addressed” in Task Response, and “Paragraphing may be inadequate or missing” in Coherence and Cohesion. An essay that leaves part of the question unanswered is held at 5 for Task Response, and one written as a single block is held at 5 for Coherence and Cohesion, however good its language is.

The test rules add three more. An answer under 250 words may not give “enough evidence of the language features needed in order to award higher bands”. Notes and bullet points are penalised, because the answer must be “a whole piece of connected text”. And sentences lifted from the question are not your writing: the descriptors say “Any copied rubric must be discounted.”

Task 1 uses the same four criteria, with Task Achievement in place of Task Response, and the language criteria step from 6 to 7 in the same way. For Academic Task 1 the step that matters is the overview. At band 6 “a relevant overview is attempted”; at band 7 the response “presents a clear overview, the data are appropriately categorised, and main trends or differences are identified”. Write two sentences of overview that name the biggest trend and the biggest difference, with no figures in them, then group the detail instead of reporting it item by item. One bolded feature holds Academic Task 1 at band 5: “There may be no data to support the description.” Use the numbers. The Task 1 guide has a sample answer for each chart type.

For the General Training letter, band 7 asks for a clear purpose, all three bullet points “covered and clearly highlighted”, and a tone that is “consistent and appropriate to the task”. Band 6 allows “minor inconsistencies in tone”, so a letter to a manager that ends like a note to a friend costs marks.

Write under test conditions: 40 minutes for Task 2 and 20 for Task 1, with no dictionary and no spellchecker. Get each essay marked on all four criteria rather than as a single number, because the criterion that stays lowest across several essays is the one to work on. Then rewrite one essay a week after it is marked instead of writing a new one every day. The rewrite is where a band 6 habit becomes a band 7 one. The Task 2 sample answers show what that looks like at band 8, paragraph by paragraph.