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So many people get affected by this and they have no idea.  They go into the exam, think that they did really well and then get awarded 6 or 6.5.  One of the main reasons for this is the cut-off points in Task Achievement.  No idea what they are?  Keep reading.

Something that a lot of IELTS candidates don’t know is about cut-off points.  There are parts of the criteria that stop you getting higher marks.  These are highlighted in the version of the writing criteria that the examiners have, not in the public version.

So, what do these cut off points mean?

Well, it means that if one of these features is see in your writing, your Task Achievement is capped.  Let’s look at an example.  This is a cut-off point for Band 4 in Task 1 and it affects a surprising number of candidates.

In the academic Task 1, if you do not cover all the key features of the task, your Task Achievement is capped at band 4.  It doesn’t matter if you cover all the other key features perfectly, you have missed one so you are awarded Band 4 for Task Achievement.

In the general Task 1, if you don’t cover one of the three bullet points in your letter (It happens a lot!), then your Task Achievement is capped at Band 4.  Also, if you write a formal letter in an informal way, or you write an informal letter in a formal way, your score is capped at Band 4.

The question is, how do you know if you are doing this?  Well, that is what we are here for.  You can do a Task 1 academic or Task 1 general with us.  We will let you know whether you are doing all you can to reach your IELTS potential and tell you what you need to work on to get higher marks.  IELTS examiners are the only people that can tell you how to do this and that is what we are.