Understanding the IELTS Academic Writing test format

What is the format of the IELTS Academic Writing Test?

This article is for the IELTS Academic Writing test. If you are looking for the General Training Writing test, please click here

The Test Format

The IELTS Academic writing test is for one hour. It has two tasks that you need to finish within the hour. Although there is no stipulated time for you to finish each individually, it is recommended that you take 20 mins for task 1 and 40 minutes for task 2. Task 1 involves describing an illustration and task 2 involves writing an essay.

Task 1

As mentioned earlier that you should keep roughly 20 minutes of the stipulated 1 hour to complete this task. Task1 is definitely the shorter of the two tasks and it does not ask you to bring in your own ideas. It simply asks you to explain what you see in the given graph or whatever other illustration is accompanying the question. Which is why it makes sense to use less time for this task.

So, what can the question ask you to describe. There are six different types of illustrations that may show up in the question. These are bar chart, line graph, table, a pie chart, diagram or a process and a map. You may also encounter a question where a combination of these may be presented.

Next, let’s understand what is the instruction that you need to follow. Task 1 requires that you write a minimum of 150 words. And I stress on the word minimum. If you write less than 150 words you will lose marks for not following instructions. You may write more than 150 words but you cannot write 149. Minimum 150.

Task 2

Coming to task 2. Or essay writing. For this, you should ideally set aside 40 minutes of the stipulated 1 hour that is given for the test. Task 2 involves writing more words and also bringing in your own ideas. So, you certainly will need time to plan your answer before you start writing. Also, considering that you will be writing more you will need more time to revise your work as well.

Task 2 can present 5 different types of questions for you to answer. These are:

- Opinion essay, where you will need you present your opinion on an issue 

- Discussion essay, where you will have to discus the opinions that have been presented on an issue

- Solution essay, where they will ask you to suggest a solution to an issue

- Direct answer essay, where the question will seek an answer from you to a problem or scenario

- Advantage/disadvantage essay, where you will have to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a change, product, habit etc. 

Like task 1, task 2 also comes with an instruction on the minimum number of words that you need to write. The minimum number of words for task 2 are 250. And just like in task 1 if you write less than 250 words you will lose marks. It is okay for you to write more than 250 words.

To know what type of questions to expect on the other 3 modules, you can read the following articles: 

- What to expect on the Speaking Test ?

- What to expect on the Academic Reading Test?

- What to expect on the Listening Test?

- Understanding the IELTS Test format - Paper based Test

If you are looking for professional guidance to prepare for the test, you should join my Online IELTS group classes. Through these classes I help you prepare for the test in a small batch of 5 students, to maximize the attention you get from me. To know all about these classes click here. If you wish to check out all other courses that I offer, then please click here!