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Writing less in IELTS

What happens if I write less than 250 words in IELTS Task 2?

The answer to this may surprise you and one of the IELTS writing examiners that works with us has this to say.

The short answer is nothing.  If you write 200 words, you are not penalised.  If you write 100 words, you are not penalised.  Until a few years ago, candidates lost Task Achievement marks for writing answers that were too short.  For example, if you wrote 240 words, you were not penalised, but if you write 239 words then your Task Achievement had 1 Band deducted from it. It was a huge pain for us examiners as we had to count every word of an essay sometimes and it took much longer to mark essays (For us, time is money as the quicker you are, the more you earn per hour).

But, and it is a big but, if your answer is under 250 words then you are more than likely going to receive a lower Task Achievement score anyway.  IELTS deems 250 words the minimum possible to write a Band 9 answer.  This means that anything under 250 words will probably not be developed enough to get into the top bands.  So, if you write 230 words, for example, your Task Achievement will probably be low as you will not have fulfilled the Band 7 criteria in terms of developing your ideas.

So, the good news is that you won’t lose marks for shorter answers, but you will more than likely receive a lower Task Achievement score anyway because you won’t have developed your ideas enough, and this is why IELTS stopped penalising people for shorter answers.

If you want to do a IELTS Task with us, you can use out writing service here.  We only use IELTS examiners to help you.

Comments (83)

  • Takahashi Reply

    My IELTS tutor told me I lose marks if I write less than 250 words in Task 2 and 150 in Task 1. Is this not true?

    February 4, 2021 at 10:19 am
    • admin Reply

      Hello Takashi. Thank you for question. Your IELTS tutor is wrong. IELTS stopped penalising people for under length answers a number of years ago. IELTS examiners were very happy about this as previously, we had had to count every word of essays that looked too short. You no longer get Task Achievement marks deducted for short answers. This stopped around 5/6 years ago.

      February 4, 2021 at 10:25 am
  • Sai Kiran Reply

    Can you please tell me that if number of words for writing task 2 is 200. Will that effect my band score. Please reply

    January 7, 2022 at 6:39 am
    • admin Reply

      Hello Sai
      Thank you for your comment. The recommended number of words in Task 2 is 250. The reason they have chosen this number is that it is deemed the minimum needed to fully answer the question and support your ideas.
      If you have written 200 then you have probably not supported your ideas well enough and this will affect your Task Achievement, capping it at Band 6.0. As for the other criteria though, it is possible that you will get higher marks.
      Please get in touch if you have more questions.
      Best wishes

      The upmyielts team

      January 7, 2022 at 11:48 am
      • Riya Reply

        Is writing around 200 words in writing task 1 a problem…like will it affect my band score in any way ?

        October 22, 2023 at 2:32 pm
        • admin Reply

          Hello Riya

          Than you for your comment. No, writing 200 words won’t affect your score. You don’t need to write that many but if you have gone into greater detail and it doesn’t affect the timing, then why not? If you can do it, go for it.
          We hope you get what you need. Let us know how you did.
          The upmyielts team

          October 29, 2023 at 9:17 am
    • Arun Reply

      How much did you got!

      November 17, 2023 at 8:33 am
  • Subhaa Reply

    Hi upmyielts team,
    I gave my ielts exam today and I realise that I would have written only 210 words in task 2 and 115 words in task 1. Could you please let me know the minimum band score I can expect.
    Thanks in advance!

    March 3, 2022 at 7:39 pm
    • admin Reply

      Hello Subhaa
      Well, 115 words for Task 1 is pretty short. Did you do the academic or general exam? Sometimes, you don’t need to write much to cover everything. This is certainly the case with processes. However, if you have done the general exam then 115 is probably too short and this will affect your Task Achievement score. 210 for Task 2 is also short so this will probably affect your Task Achievement score too. So the question is, why did you spend time counting words in your exam when you should have been developing your ideas more? IELTS writing is about efficiency. You don’t lose marks for underlength essays anymore so you need to focus on what you can do within in the time given. We hope you get what you need but getting passed Band 6 might be difficult.

      March 3, 2022 at 8:45 pm
    • Tom Reply

      hi! I passed the IELTS exam today, and the only problem I have is that I wrote 248 words in the second task, everything there is done by the book, with proper grammar, academic level vocabulary and finished ideas. the only problem is that I managed to write 248 out of 250 words. could you please tell me what my band will be? I’m quite nervous, because I passed everything else almost perfectly and I’m hoping for 8.5-9.0 in speaking, listening, reading. What will my approximate writing grade be? and do I still have a chance of recieving an overall level of C2?

      March 4, 2023 at 1:55 pm
      • admin Reply

        Hello Tom. Sorry for the delay in replying. 248 words is not that much for a Band 8+ (C2) user of English. How come you only wrote 248? If you can get such high marks in the other parts of the exam, and Band 7 in writing, then you should be fine. Getting 8.5/9 in speaking is hard though, and it makes us wonder why you are aiming so high in your speaking but only wrote 248 words in Task 2.
        We hope you got what you need; please let us know.
        If you need help with your writing then send a message to [email protected] and we will be able to help you more.
        Best wishes
        The upmyielts team

        March 12, 2023 at 8:54 pm
        • Ahmed Reply

          Hi!i wrote 100 words both of task tow from gt.what band i expect

          December 17, 2023 at 4:31 pm
          • admin

            Hello Ahmed

            100 words in Task 2? Unfortunately, this is not enough to answer the question so you will probably be looking at Band 5 maximum; and that would be high We would love to hear what you go though.
            Best wishes
            the upmyielts team

            December 21, 2023 at 5:32 pm
      • Shanks Reply

        If you don’t mind can i know how much you got in your writing. Thanks in advance

        August 4, 2023 at 3:25 pm
    • Lala Reply

      Hi. I ‘m waiting for my results but I’m not sure about my essay. I guess I wrote 220 words. Can you say to me your score from essay?

      April 20, 2023 at 6:02 am
      • admin Reply

        Hello Lala

        Thank you for your comment. So, 220 words is quite short. You aren’t penalised for short essays; this stopped about 7 years ago (or more), but it might affect your Task Achievement. You probably won’t have been able to develop both your body paragraphs fully and this would affect your Task Achievement. It may also affect your range of grammar and vocabulary in terms of the range you can show. However, without actually seeing your writing, it’s impossible to say. Short essays tend to stay about Band 6, 6.5 max though.
        Please come back and let us know how you get on.
        Best wishes
        The upmyielts team

        April 20, 2023 at 8:23 am
    • Ravi Reply

      If you don’t mind can you reply with your IELTS written score after that?
      Thanks in advance!

      July 29, 2023 at 7:32 am
  • John Reply

    Hello
    I have written only 220 words in my IELTS writing task 2 and i was unable to write conclusion and i have given computer based ielts. Could you please let me know minimum band score i can expect.

    Thank you in advance 💗

    April 19, 2022 at 1:01 pm
    • admin Reply

      Hello John.
      Apologies for the delay in replying. Not writing a conclusion affects your Task Achievement and caps your TA score at Band 5.0 as “no conclusions can be drawn” (Band 5 criteria). As you only wrote 220 words, then it sounds like you haven’t developed your ideas enough. As for your overall score though, this will depend on how you did in the other parts. However, if you get 5777 for your Task 2, you will be awarded Band 6.0.
      This is only for your Task 2 and your Task 1 makes up 33% of the score.
      Please let us know how you got on. We hope you get what you need.
      If you don’t and what to have your writing assessed by IELTS examiners, then you can order that here https://upmyielts.com/shop/
      Best wishes

      The upmyielts team

      April 25, 2022 at 8:26 pm
      • Ajal Reply

        I have written only 180 words ind task 2, how much band will I score

        July 25, 2022 at 5:27 pm
        • Admin Reply

          Hello Ajal. Thank you for the comment. It is difficult to say but 180 words is very short. You have probably limited your Task Achievement score as you won’t have been able to develop your ideas sufficiently in 180 words so Band 6 would be an estimate, but it is impossible to say without actually seeing your work. Please let us know how you got on and if you need your writing assessed by IELTS examiners, you know where to find us.
          Good luck and we hope you get what you need.
          The upmyielts team

          July 25, 2022 at 7:48 pm
        • Honey Reply

          hi, what band did you get for writing? I written 190 words only, i hope i could get banc 6 😞

          December 5, 2022 at 6:06 pm
          • admin

            Hello. We hope you get what you need but Band 6 will be very difficult with only 190 words. You won’t have developed your ideas enough to get into Band 6.0. We hope we are wrong and please let us know how you get on.

            Best wishes
            The upmyielts team

            December 6, 2022 at 10:30 pm
  • Vivek Reply

    Hello
    I gave my academic test on 14th May and I wrote writing task 2 first and completed it with 250+ words with covering everything from introduction to conclusion but for task 1 I couldn’t complete at all and only wrote introduction and overview. How much band will be deducted and what band I can expect? please let me know. Thank you in advance.

    May 17, 2022 at 4:55 pm
    • admin Reply

      Hello Vivek

      Thank you for your post. So, if your Task 2 is fine, it is the other 33% of the writing exam you need to worry about. If you only wrote the introduction and overview (Basically one paragraph) then your Task 1 will be penalised heavily. You will be looking at Band 3 or 4 for Task Achievement. Your Lexical Resource will be affected as you don’t show enough of a range of vocabulary to deal with the task and Coherence will be affected as the structure is not logical (No body of the task). Your range of grammar will also be affected in the same way as your lexical score.
      To be honest, you will be looking at Band 5 maximum for Task 1. If your Task 2 is Band 6 level, then 5.5 will be the most you can get here.
      We hope you get what you need and, if you need professional help with IELTS writing, then you know where we are.

      Best wishes

      The upmyielts team

      May 17, 2022 at 7:49 pm
      • Sagar Reply

        Hello my name is sagar.I completed 250+word in task 2 and I completed about 120 words in task 1 including introduction,details and overview.How much will I get in total

        May 28, 2022 at 1:19 pm
        • admin Reply

          Hello Sagar

          120 words for Task 1 is not very much. Without seeing your writing and the task it is difficult to say what you will get but, 120 words in Task 1 sounds like you may not have completed the task sufficiently. This will affect your Task Achievement score. If you haven’t covered all the key features then your Task Achievement will be capped at Band 4.0 and this will lower your Task 1 score substantially.
          However, it is impossible to say without seeing what you wrote. We hope you get what you need and if you don’t, you know where we are. Our IELTS examiners can help you get where you need to be.

          Best wishes

          The upmyielts team

          May 29, 2022 at 8:42 pm
      • Wil Reply

        Hi my name is wil, well just took my ielts exam. In task 1 i wrote 154 and in task 2 i wrote 170.. will i be penalized. Teacher told me that grade will be deducted.

        March 1, 2023 at 8:38 am
        • admin Reply

          Hello. Thank you for your comment. So, the task may be a problem. You don’t get marks deducted for only writing 170 words. 10+ years ago, you would have lost 2 marks in Task Achievement but that doesn’t happen anymore. What you will probably be penalised for is not developing your ideas sufficiently, so your Task Achievement may suffer here. You’ve probably also not shown a wide enough range of grammar/vocabulary in 170 words so you may be penalised here.
          So, it’s not about points being deducted, but it’s about not meeting the criteria in the higher bands.
          You know where we are if you want an IELTS writing examiner to assess your writing.

          March 1, 2023 at 10:38 am
  • Raihan Chowdhury Reply

    Hello, my name is raihan.
    I took my IELTS EXAM today. And i wrote 170+ words for WT 1 and 210 words for WT 2 but i completed conclusion. Could you please tell me how my marking criteria will be assessed ? I am really worried as my teacher told band 1 will be deducted from total…

    June 11, 2022 at 11:06 am
    • admin Reply

      Hello Raihan
      First things first, your teacher is wrong. You are not penalised for writing underlength essays. This used to be the case but the rules changed over 5 years ago. We are not sure why but many IELTS “teachers” still don’t know this. So, you won’t lose any marks for writing shorter essays.
      However, and this is where your score will be affected, 210 words for Task 2 is short. This may affect your Task Achievement because you won’t have developed your ideas sufficiently. IELTS recommend writing 250 words for Task 2 as this is the number deemed necessary to fully answer the question. It would be difficult to do this in 210 words and this would lead to your Task Achievement being capped at Band 5 or 6.
      We haven’t seen your writing so we can’t comment much but you can let your teacher know that IELTS writing is not penalised for underlength writing anymore.
      We hope you get what you need and if you don’t, think about doing a full writing exam with us so we can show you what you need to do to get what you need.
      Best wishes
      The upmyielts team

      June 11, 2022 at 11:43 am
      • Laura Reply

        Hello! I did an IELTS test and I am pretty sure that both my Task 1 and Task 2 of the writing were both really well written. However, unfortunately I concentrated too much on writing them in the most appropriate way and time passed quickly without me noticing, so in Task 2 I wrote approximately 228 words. Do I have any chance to reach band 6 or 7?

        August 18, 2022 at 11:08 am
        • kofil2 Reply

          Hello Laura

          Thank you for your comment. 228 words may not be enough to fully develop your ideas fully but if you think both your Task 1 and 2 were well written then Band 6, even 7 should be possible. Did you manage to conclude your Task 2? Did you present 2 ideas and support them with examples?

          The upmyielts team

          August 18, 2022 at 3:14 pm
          • Laura

            I managed to conclude Task 2 but the conclusion was quite short. But I presented all the ideas. The paragraph of task 2 where I supported the thesis was well written and with examples. The one where I was supported the other point of view was still good but a bit shorter. The problem is mostly for the conclusion, which is just one sentence long because I didn’t have enough time. I was hoping to get at least a 7 because I need it to be admitted into a university I applied for😥 Thank you so much for helping!☺️

            August 19, 2022 at 12:52 pm
          • admin

            If your conclusion is short, it doesn’t matter. You only need to write a very short and concise conclusion. It hardly appears in the marking criteria. It sounds like you should be ok. Your Task Achievement score is the one to worry about as candidates are usually awarded Band 6 if their writing is unbalanced; which it sounds like it was. However, based on what you have written in the comments, your writing looks good so hopefully the other parts of the criteria can lift your score.
            We hope you get what you need.

            August 19, 2022 at 1:27 pm
        • admin Reply

          We hope you get what you need Laura. If you don’t, get in touch with us here and we will get you through it.
          Let us know how you get on.
          upmyielts admin

          August 18, 2022 at 8:54 pm
  • Ishtiaq Reply

    Hi,
    Today, I have taken my IELTS test and in writing, I have wrote 213 words in task 2 within 4 paragraph, because of time shortage. In addition, I wrote 188 words in task 1.
    What can be my band estimation?

    August 27, 2022 at 11:48 am
    • admin Reply

      Hello Ishtiaq
      Thank you for your question. 213 words is low for a Task 2 so it probably means you haven’t developed your ideas sufficiently. This will cap your Task Achievement at Band 6 maximum. The rest depends on how accurate your writing was and its coherence. Band 6 (max) would be our estimate here but we haven’t seen your writing so this is just a guess.
      We hope you get what you need and if you don’t, you know where IELTS examiners are that can help you.
      Best wishes

      The upmyielts team

      August 27, 2022 at 12:02 pm
  • Ishtiaq Reply

    Hi,
    Today, I have taken my IELTS test. In writing, I have wrote 213 words in task 2, and 188 words in task 1. Accidentally, I have wrote the word target incorrect in task 2.
    What can be my band estimation?

    August 27, 2022 at 11:52 am
  • Myra Reply

    Hey. I attempted my IELTS test today and ended up focusing too much on writing good points in Task 2 that I ended up writing only approximately 160 words. Is there even a slight chance I may secure a 6-7 band score?

    September 26, 2022 at 4:02 pm
    • admin Reply

      Hello Myra

      Unfortunately, not. With 160 words, it is highly unlikely you will get what you need. You won’t have developed your ideas sufficiently, you probably didn’t write a conclusion, and you won’t have addressed the task sufficiently. You will more than likely be awarded Band 4 to 5 (Obviously, we hope we are wrong but….).

      Please let us know how you get on and if you need help with writing, IELTS examiners are ready to help you.

      Best wishes

      The upmyielts team

      September 28, 2022 at 10:50 am
  • Laiba Emaan Reply

    Hi admin,
    I wrote 180 words in writing task one and 243 words in writing task two. I was writing the conclusion but ran out of time and couldn’t complete it as I gave it on computer and got 5.5 in writing while in speaking I got 7. Should I go for EOR? Please reply as soon as possible since I’m unable to go abroad with this writing score.

    October 15, 2022 at 8:04 am
    • admin Reply

      Hello Laiba
      We wouldn’t recommend going for EOR on these results. As you didn’t finish the conclusion then structurally, your essay is not complete. In the criteria for Task Achievement, Band 5 says “There may be no conclusions drawn”. If this is the case then your writing would have suffered due to this. We cannot say how you did in the other parts of the criteria without seeing your writing but this may have dropped your overall score. If you got, say,
      • Task Achievement – 5
      • Coherence – 6
      • Lexical Resource – 6
      • Grammar – 6
      Then your overall score would be 5.5.
      It sounds like it’s really important that you get the score you need. If you decide not to go for EOR and book another test, use us. Get an IELTS writing examiner to look at your writing and tell you exactly what you need to do to get higher marks. Buy a correction with us; we’ve helped thousands of people.
      We can help you get there.

      October 16, 2022 at 9:33 am
      • Sumeet Bains Reply

        Hey,

        So I wrote 300+ words for both the task, and as a result couldnt manage my time properly. For task 2 I couldnt write a conclusion as time ran out on the very first sentence in my conclusion para. I also didn’t have time to re read my task 2 properly. I will settle for 6.5 band score in writing. Do you think this is possible or is it far fetched?

        January 3, 2023 at 10:31 am
        • admin Reply

          Hello Sumeet
          Thank you for your comment. So, do you mean that you write 300 words each for Task 1 and 2? Or 300 in total? If you didn’t write a conclusion then your Task Achievement will be capped at Band 5 as no conclusions can be drawn although it depends what you wrote before time was up. It’s only 25% of Task 2 though so 6.5 is certainly possible here. We hope you get what you need and please let us know how you get on.

          Best wishes
          The upmyielts team

          January 5, 2023 at 9:28 pm
  • Priya Reply

    Hello. I have recently completed my IELTS academic. I have written 140 in task 1 and 240 in task 2. It will be affect on bands?? I have completed introduction, body paragraph 1,2 and conclusion. And conclusion is short because of lack time.

    October 28, 2022 at 6:50 pm
    • admin Reply

      Hello Priya.
      Sorry for the delay in replying to you. How did you get on in the end? 140 and 240 is quite short for IELTS writing and your Task 1 may be a problem. Apart from processes, it’s very difficult to cover all you need to in Task 1 in 140 words. This might be an area to work on. We hope you got what you need and if not, you know where we are to help.

      Best wishes

      The upmyielts team

      November 8, 2022 at 3:35 pm
  • Annie Reply

    Hi.
    I wrote my ielts today. I wrote up to 180 words in task 1 though there were errors in separating the exceptions from the general trend.
    For task 2, I completed the essay but wrote about 230 words.
    What band score am I likely to get?
    Thank you.

    November 20, 2022 at 3:55 am
    • admin Reply

      Hello Annie

      It’s impossible to say really. When you say “there were errors in separating the exceptions from the general trend”, what do you actually mean?
      230 words for Task 2 is quite short. You aren’t penalised for underlength answers so you won’t lose marks for not writing 250 words. However, you won’t have been able to fully develop your main ideas and this will affect your Task Achievement score and possibly stop you from getting over 6.0 for Task Achievement.
      We hope you get what you need though. Please come back and let us know how you got on.

      Best wishes
      The upmyielts team

      November 21, 2022 at 10:52 am
  • Archita Saha Reply

    Hello, I gave my IELTS exam on the last day, I took a very wrong time in writing task 01 that I couldn’t save enough for writing task 02. I tried to write an introduction and body paragraphs with my extended ideas, examples, and a short conclusion in task 02. After completing the writing, I counted the words that were exactly 250 words in writing task 02. I didn’t have time to add some extra lines to ensure the task achievement. Will that restrict me from getting a band score of 7.00 on the writing test if I could fulfill all the other criteria, but my word count is slightly below 250, maybe in the range of 240-250?

    December 18, 2022 at 3:49 am
    • admin Reply

      Hello Archita

      Thank you for your message. So, firstly, you won’t lose Task Achievement marks for writing less than 250 words; that doesn’t happen anymore. However, it sounds like time management may be the problem here. You say you didn’t have enough time to focus on Task Achievement but you also won’t have had enough time to reread your work and check for errors and this may have affected your score.
      We hope we are wrong but it doesn’t sound like Band 7 is possible here. Please let us know how you get on and we hope you get what you need.
      If you need help with IELTS writing, then you can contact us.

      Best wishes

      The upmyielts team

      December 19, 2022 at 11:03 pm
  • Raja mandela Reply

    Overall i got 6.5 but I got 5.5 band in writing and i didn’t count my words in task 2 , but i know i have written not less than 220 words moreover in last paragraph i had sum up my ideas but i forgot
    to conclude it and in writing task -1, sure i have written 150 words but in last paragraph while I’m writing they took my paper because of time up. So can you please suggest me, if i go for EOR means, can I get 6 band?

    January 20, 2023 at 4:49 pm
    • admin Reply

      Thank you for getting in touch. It doesn’t sound like EOR will help you here as going from 5.5 to 6.5 is almost unheard of, but what we can recommend you to do is contact the British Council or IDp and get a breakdown of your results, before you apply for EOR. It’s free and it will show you what part of the criteria that you lower on. The emails to contact are below
      IDP – [email protected]
      British Council – [email protected]

      It also sounds like you need help to find out exactly what you need to work on. If you need IELTS examiners to assess your writing, then we can help with that.

      Best wishes

      The upmyielts team

      January 22, 2023 at 6:35 pm
    • CHAYON KARMAKAR Reply

      Hey, I have done minimum 6-7 spelling mistakes in IELTS writting task 2 and I also noticed that I have written 2 or 3 lines with some grammertical error. What I am worrying most is I have done a spelling mistake in the 2nd body peragraphs main idea, this was like ‘Greedness’ but the correct word is greediness. I repeated this word for 2 or 3 times maybe, however I think I have written approximately 230-240 words for task -2 and 120-140 words for task – 1. One thing I should mention that I was able to write the topic easy to understand and I wrote what the question was given to me for discuss. Please can you tell me that how can I get? I forgot to mention that I was an academic candidate.

      September 19, 2024 at 12:19 pm
      • admin Reply

        Hello Chayon

        Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. So, what score do you need? It sounds like you haven’t written enough in your Task 1 or 2 and this is more of an issue that some speeling mistakes. If you notices the spelling mistakes, then there are probably more than you realise. How did yu get on? It would be a very good idea to get an IELTS writing examiner to have a look at your writing to see what the actual problem is if you didn’t get what you needed.
        You can book one here
        We hope you got what you need but you also know where we are if you need us.
        Best wishes
        The upmyielts team

        September 28, 2024 at 5:00 pm
  • Jonathan Reply

    Hello, i took my Ielts today
    can you tell me what my score will be limited to if i only wrote 122 words for task 1 and didn’t write a conclusion and 233 words for task 2
    im really hoping for 6.5 or more but i don’t think i wrote enough to reach it

    Thanks in advance
    – Jonathan

    March 12, 2023 at 10:56 am
    • admin Reply

      Hi there
      Thank you for your comment. So, 122 words for Task 1 is not very many. It suggests you haven’t covered the key features of the task. You don’t need to write a conclusion in Task 1. Your Task 2 is short too and this suggests that you haven’t developed your ideas sufficiently. 6.5 might be difficult based on what you have told us. We hope you get what you need but if you don’t, get in touch with us at [email protected] and we can help you make sure you get what you need next time.

      Best wishes
      The upmyielts team

      March 12, 2023 at 8:57 pm
  • Niyati patel Reply

    If I write 220 words in task 2 how much score examiner will give me ?

    March 20, 2023 at 5:34 am
    • admin Reply

      Hello Niyati
      Thank you for your comment. 220 words may not be sufficient to develop your ideas. Your score will depend on a couple of things. How much did you write in your introduction and conclusion? If you wrote very little, then that means you spent more time on your body paragraphs, and so Band 6 may be possible. However, if your introduction was the same length as your body paragraphs, then that means you probably haven’t added enough detail to your body paragraphs and Band 6 will be difficult as you won’t have shown a wide enough range of grammar/vocabulary, and your ideas will be limited.
      We hope you get what you need though and if you need an IELTS examiner to evaluate your writing, you can order one here.
      https://upmyielts.com/shop/
      Best wishes
      The upmyielts team

      March 20, 2023 at 9:40 am
      • Niyati Reply

        If I wrote 220 words in task 2 then examiner will minus score only in task 2 or they will minus band from Overall ban score ?

        March 20, 2023 at 3:04 pm
        • admin Reply

          Hello Niyati
          The examiner won’t deduct any marks for writing 220 words. You are not penalised by IELTS for writing less than 250 words; this stopped years ago. However, your Task Achievement score will be affected if you didn’t develop your ideas. As you have only written 220 words, your range of vocabulary/grammar may be restricted too. In this case, your Lexical and Grammar score would also be affected. It all depends on what you actually wrote.

          March 20, 2023 at 3:11 pm
          • Kathit sondhi

            I just got done with my ielts exam . I am really scared . I have met the word count in part one ; however i had 30 minutes remaining, therefore i could merely write 230 words . Though i wrote introduction, body paragraph 1 and then 2 nd followed by conclusion. The question was international community should come forward to spread the message of reducing fossil fuels to world . To what extent do u agree? I forgot to add about global warming; however, i wrote that fossil fuel like gas cause pollution and i described about oil as well. If oil will get finished then it force government to purchase oil from another country which could result increment in tax . I also gave example too . Can anyone tell how much band i can expect? Will i pass ?

            May 28, 2023 at 4:50 pm
          • admin

            Hello Kathit

            Thank you for your comment. So, well, the question doesn’t say anything about global warming so you don’t need to mention it. If the question was “The international community should come together to solve global warming by reducing our use of fossil fuels. To what extent do you agree?”, then not mentioning global warming would be a problem. If it’s not in the question though, you don’t need to mention it, even though it is the logical way to go here.
            230 words implies that you haven’t developed your ideas sufficiently though so getting higher than Band 6 in Task Achievement will be difficult. Looking at what you have written here, there are a lot of grammatical mistakes, and so getting past Band 6 for Grammar will also be difficult.

            We hope you get what you need, but if you don’t, we have IELTS examiners here that can show you exactly what you need to do to get higher marks, and what to work on. The service is the best out there.
            Best wishes
            The upmyielts team

            May 29, 2023 at 12:44 pm
  • Lala Reply

    I got my results and my score from writing ia 6.

    April 30, 2023 at 4:43 am
    • admin Reply

      Hello Lala

      Thank you for letting us know. Well, we were kind of accurate there. So, is Band 6.0 enough for you?

      The upmyielts team

      April 30, 2023 at 7:43 pm
  • Aman Reply

    Sir, wrote around 120 words in task -1 and approximately 230-240 words in task-2. And covered all requirements of question. So, i can score 6 band or not

    May 1, 2023 at 6:07 am
    • admin Reply

      Hello Aman
      Thank you for your comment. So, 120 words is very short for Task 1. If you did the General exam, you probably won’t have developed the bullet points sufficiently. If you did the Academic exam, then Band 6 will be very difficult to get. As for Task 2, with 230 to 240 words, Band 6 is possible. It’s the task 1 that is the problem. Please come back and let us know what you got and if you want to work with IELTS examiners, then you can contact us anytime.
      Best wishes
      The upmyielts team

      May 1, 2023 at 2:16 pm
  • Roshan limbu Reply

    I done written ielts exam today but in task 2 I write only 220 words. How much i will get band score..?

    May 1, 2023 at 1:09 pm
    • admin Reply

      Hello Roshan
      Without seeing what you actually write, it is impossible to say. However, 220 words is not very many. You probably have not developed your ideas sufficiently to get past Band 6 to be honest. We hope you get what you need, so please let us know how you did.
      Best wishes
      The upmyielts team

      May 1, 2023 at 2:18 pm
  • Maheen Reply

    I write 160 words in writing task 1 and 200 in task 2 how much bands can i get?

    July 29, 2023 at 3:52 pm
    • admin Reply

      Hello Maheen
      Thank you for your comment. So, 160 words in Task 1 is fine but 200 in Task 2 is very short. It will affect your Task Achievement score as you won’t be able to develop your ideas fully. It means that getting past Band 6.0 would be difficult. We hope you get what you need, but if you don’t, then it’s a really good idea to do a full writing exam with an IELTS examiner. You can book one here
      Good luck and best wishes
      The upmyielts team

      August 5, 2023 at 1:32 am
    • Utsho Reply

      What is the penalty if someone writes % instead of $ in the whole task 1? There were no grammatical or spelling errors and the essay was well organized Which crossed 180 words. Will it reduce the whole band score of the writing section? Task 2 was well written with no errors

      December 7, 2023 at 12:32 pm
      • admin Reply

        Hello Utsho

        It is a little bit of a strange mistake to make. This would be left to the examiner’s discretion to be honest. We would see it is as a typo in the computer-based exam so it would be a minor error that native speakers make. If it is in the paper-based exam, this suggests something else though and it’s a mistake. If you met all the other criteria and answered the question in detail then Band 8+ would be possible. It’s difficult to say without seeing the task.
        Best wishes
        The upmyielts team

        December 21, 2023 at 5:37 pm
  • Jessica Reply

    I just took the exam last week and I’m a bit worried about my writing score. I covered the word limit of 150 in task 1 but only wrote 243 words in task 2. Although, it includes an introduction, 2 body paragraphs and a conclusion in a single sentence. Also, I kept checking my writing as I went, so I’m pretty confident there shouldn’t be any other mistakes. I also based my writing on the main question of the essay which was – Do you think working & living away from home has more advantages or disadvantages? and did include some examples about the ideas I mentioned. What do you think my score would be? Please give me a minimum expectation too.

    September 12, 2023 at 3:15 pm
    • admin Reply

      Hello
      Thank you for your comment. It sounds like you structured your Task 2 in a logical way. What sometimes happens with short answers is that the ideas are not developed enough. Did you support your ideas with examples? If so, you should be fine and Band 7 is certainly a possibility. There are a lot of variables though. How was your Task 1? Looking at your writing in your comment, you shouldn’t have too much to worry about. Please let us know how you get on and we hope you get what you need. If you don’t get in touch with us and we will help.
      Best wishes
      The upmyielts team

      September 18, 2023 at 10:23 am
      • Jessica Reply

        I was hopeful after reading your response and today I got my results which are LRWS=8.5,9,7,8 and just like you said, I got a band 7 score in writing. I’m relieved it ended well.

        September 22, 2023 at 5:38 am
        • admin Reply

          Hello Jessica

          We are really happy to hear that, well done. It must be such a relief to be finished with IELTS for a couple of years. Let us know if you need help with it in the future and we wish you the best of luck.
          The upmyielts team

          September 22, 2023 at 5:30 pm
  • Khaled Reply

    Hello admin , i am going to have an academic ielts test probably after 10 days. I have a question about the writing can i write less than 250 words ?

    September 21, 2023 at 11:40 am
    • admin Reply

      Hello Khaled

      So, writing less that 250 words isn’t really recommended. It isn’t a disaster, but it affects your Task Achievement score bacause you might not be able to fully develop your ideas. Aim for 250 words as a minimum. If you look in the comments here though, Jessica wrote a shorter answer and got 7 in writing so it’s possible.
      Please let us know hoe you get on and if you want an IELTS examiner to check your writing, then we can arrange that for you before your exam.
      Best wishes
      The upmyielts team

      September 22, 2023 at 5:33 pm
  • kalla Reply

    Hi, I wrote my ielts today, I couldn’t finish my writing task 2 fully as I had to correct an error I made in task 1 and lost time doing so, in task 2 I was able to finish intro, agree idea. I presented my disagree idea and expanded and gave an example but I ran out of time while I was finishing my closing statement of body 2, and so I couldn’t write the conclusion as well, so what score can I expect in writing task 2 and what would the overall writing score be if I manage to get band 7 on writing task 1?
    Thank you

    July 14, 2024 at 11:35 am
    • admin Reply

      Hello Kalla

      Apologies for the delay in replying to you. So, not concluding your Task 2 is a bit of an issue as the conclusion is in the criteria but you are marked over the whole essay. If you get Band 7 in Task 1, then getting Band 7 overall might be a bit difficult. It sounds like you had to hurry and didn’t have time to check your writing which is key.
      We hope you got what you need in the exam. Please come back and let us know how you did. If you need IELTS writing help, then you know where we live.
      Best wishes
      The upmyielts team

      July 28, 2024 at 8:36 pm
  • Shafi Reply

    I require overall band score 6.5 (with no band less than 6). But my bad luck I could only write 210 words . Is there any possibility to get 5.5 in task 2 since 6 in task 1 and 5.5 in task 2 will overall give 6 in writing.

    October 29, 2024 at 5:36 am
    • admin Reply

      Hello Shafi

      Apologies for the late reply. How did you do?
      A couple of things here. Writing 210 words in Task 2 is very low so 5.5 will be very difficult. The other thing here is that 5.5 in Task 2, and 6.0 in Task 1 will give you 5.5 overall. IELTS writing is marked down.
      We hope you come back and tell us how you got on.
      Best wishes
      The upmyielts team

      November 7, 2024 at 9:21 am

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