IELTS Writing is assessed by 2 to 4 certified examiners using band descriptors updated in May 2023, across four equally weighted criteria for each task: Task Achievement (or Task Response for Task 2), Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. Task 2 — a minimum 250-word argumentative essay — carries more weight in the final Writing band score than Task 1. Each criterion is scored on the 0–9 scale, and the Writing band score is calculated as the average across both tasks and all criteria, rounded to the nearest half band.
IELTS examiners must hold a relevant teaching qualification and extensive teaching experience to be able to become a qualified IELTS examiner. These qualified examiners mark your Writing test against clearly defined assessment criteria and their performance is subject to an extensive and detailed review on a regular basis.
Your Writing test is marked by between 2 and 4 examiners to ensure the highest level of accuracy and fairness in the marks awarded. The assessment criteria used by examiners is the same for both the General Training and Academic tests.
Your answers in Writing Task 1 are assessed against the following criteria: task achievement, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource and grammatical range and accuracy. Writing Task 2 is assessed in much the same way except for the task response criterion. Each band score matches the performance in the descriptors across these four criteria. To find out more about the assessment criteria used by IELTS examiners, search online for the IELTS Writing public band descriptors.