IELTS Class Information for Students

Marking: Candidates are assessed on their performance on each task by certifi cated IELTS examiners according to the four criteria of the IELTS Writing Test Band Descriptors (task  achievement/response, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy). The public version of the band descriptors can be found at www.ielts.org/researchers/score_processing_and_reporting.aspx Task 2 contributes twice as much as Task 1 to the Writing score Scores are reported in whole and half bands

IELTS Writing: Candidates take either the Academic or the General Training Writing module. Appropriate responses for the Academic Writing module are short essays or general reports, addressed to tutors or to an educated non-specialist audience. The General Training Writing module requires candidates to write personal semi-formal or formal correspondence, or to write on a given topic as part of a simulated class assignment.

There are two compulsory tasks. Task 1 requires at least 150 words and Task 2, the more heavily weighted, requires at least 250 words. In Task 1, Academic Writing module candidates are asked to look at a diagram, table or data and to present the information in their own words. Candidates taking the General Training Writing module are asked to respond to a given problem with a letter in Task 1. In Task 2, all candidates are presented with a point of view, argument or problem and asked to provide general factual information, outline and/or present a solution, justify an opinion, and evaluate ideas and evidence.