Short answer: IELTS Writing Task 1 is marked on four equally weighted criteria: Task Achievement, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy.
In the public descriptors (updated May 2023), Band 5 recounts detail mechanically, Band 6 attempts a relevant overview, Band 7 gives a clear overview with the data grouped, and Band 8 skilfully selects and illustrates every key feature. The table below compares bands 5–8 on all four.
Every Task 1 answer is scored against a public document — the band descriptors — yet most candidates have never read it. They practise by feel, when the marking scheme is sitting on ielts.org in plain sight.
Our general guide to how IELTS Writing is scored covers the whole writing test. This post decodes the descriptors for Academic Task 1 specifically — where the first criterion changes name, changes meaning, and changes how you should practise.
IELTS Writing Task 1 band descriptors: Band 5–8 table
Paraphrased from the public Task 1 descriptors (ielts.org, updated May 2023). Task Achievement wording is the Academic version; General Training letters are judged on bullet points, purpose and tone instead.
| Band | Task Achievement | Coherence & Cohesion | Lexical Resource | Grammar (GRA) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Covers every requirement sufficiently; key features skilfully selected, clearly highlighted and illustrated with data | Easy to follow; logically sequenced; cohesion well managed; paragraphing sufficient and appropriate | Wide, flexible, precise vocabulary with skilful less common items; only occasional slips in word choice or spelling | Wide range used flexibly and accurately; the majority of sentences error-free; only occasional, non-systematic errors |
| 7 | Clear overview; data appropriately categorised; main trends or differences identified; key features highlighted but could be illustrated more fully | Logically organised with clear progression; reference and substitution used flexibly, with some over- or under-use | Some flexibility and precision; some less common items; awareness of style and collocation; only a few spelling errors | A variety of complex structures; error-free sentences are frequent; a few grammar errors that do not impede communication |
| 6 | A relevant overview is attempted; key features adequately highlighted and supported with figures; some detail irrelevant, inaccurate, missing or excessive | Clear overall progression, but linking may be faulty or mechanical through misuse, overuse or omission; reference can cause repetition | Adequate range; meaning clear despite restricted range or imprecise word choice; some spelling errors that do not impede | A mix of simple and complex sentences with limited flexibility; complex forms less accurate than simple ones |
| 5 | Key features not adequately covered; detail recounted mainly mechanically; may lack data or lose the bigger picture in detail | Organisation evident but not wholly logical; sentences not fluently linked; cohesive devices limited or overused | Limited but minimally adequate; frequent simplification and repetition; spelling errors may cause the reader difficulty | Limited, repetitive range; complex sentences attempted but faulty; frequent errors may cause difficulty |
Two rules decide how the table is applied.
First, an answer must fully fit the positive features of a band to receive it — one missing feature holds you at the band below, so an answer with no overview cannot fully fit Band 6 or 7 for Task Achievement, however accurate its figures.
Second, bold wording in the official document flags negative features that limit a rating. Read across a row for what one band looks like; read down a column to see what the next band in that criterion asks for.
How is IELTS Writing Task 1 scored?
Four criteria, each worth 25% of the task score: Task Achievement (TA), Coherence and Cohesion (CC), Lexical Resource (LR), and Grammatical Range and Accuracy (GRA). Your Task 1 band is the average of the four, and Task 1 contributes a third of your overall writing score, with Task 2 the other two thirds.
The headline difference from Task 2 is the first criterion. Task 2 has Task Response — did you answer the question with a supported position? Task 1 has Task Achievement — did you summarise the visual accurately, select its key features, and give an overview?
That word swap matters practically: there is no opinion to defend in Task 1, so the marks Task 2 gives to argument, Task 1 gives to selection and overview. Practising Task 1 like a mini-essay is optimising the wrong criterion.
What does Task Achievement mean band by band?
Here is the TA ladder in plain language, paraphrased from the public descriptors. Read it bottom-up and the instructions write themselves.
| Band | The descriptor says (paraphrased) | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Key features not adequately covered; detail recounted mainly mechanically; there may be no data to support the description | A data list. The classic no-overview answer lands here |
| 6 | A relevant overview is attempted; key features adequately highlighted; information selected and supported with figures, though some detail may be irrelevant, inaccurate, missing or excessive | An overview exists and selection is attempted, but with rough edges |
| 7 | A clear overview; data appropriately categorised; main trends or differences identified; key features highlighted, though they could be more fully illustrated | Clean overview, grouped data, deliberate selection, real comparison |
| 8 | Covers all requirements appropriately, relevantly and sufficiently; key features skilfully selected and clearly presented, highlighted and illustrated | Nothing missing, nothing padded, every feature supported by apt figures |
Notice what moves you up each rung. From 5 to 6: write an overview. From 6 to 7: make it a clear overview and select key features deliberately. From 7 to 8: cover everything the visual requires and illustrate each feature with well-chosen data.
That is why the overview is the single highest-value sentence in the report — the 5/6 boundary is defined by it. Our overview sentence guide trains exactly that rung.
What do the other three criteria reward in Task 1?
Coherence and Cohesion rewards logically organised, grouped information with natural linking. In Task 1 terms: the four-paragraph shape, bodies grouped by time or category, and figures that sit next to the features they support. A well-chosen paragraph plan is most of a CC score.
Cohesion also polices overuse: mechanical linkers at every sentence ("Firstly... Secondly... Moreover...") match the Band 6 wording — cohesion "faulty or mechanical" through overuse — while Band 7 expects linking done flexibly through reference and substitution. Comparative structures do the linking work more naturally than sentence-initial adverbs.
Lexical Resource in Task 1 means the trend and comparison lexicon used flexibly and precisely — not rare words. Rotating rise/climb/surge accurately, paraphrasing the prompt, converting percentages to fractions: that is Task 1 range. Our trend vocabulary reference is the full working set.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy wants a mix of structures — simple and complex sentences, verb and noun trend forms, comparatives, the odd passive — with frequent error-free sentences at Band 7 and a majority of error-free sentences at Band 8. Error density matters more than ambition: a clean simple sentence outscores a broken complex one.
How do the four criteria combine into your Task 1 band?
Each criterion receives a whole-number band, and the four are averaged into the task score. That arithmetic has a practical consequence: one weak criterion drags hard. TA 5 with three 7s averages 6.5 — a single missing overview pulling the whole task down a band.
It also means balanced competence beats one showpiece skill. Immaculate grammar cannot buy back an unselective answer, because the criteria are weighted equally and marked independently.
So diagnose before you drill: find your lowest criterion and work on that one. For most candidates below Band 7, it is Task Achievement — which is also the fastest to fix, because overview and selection are structural habits, not language growth.
A model answer read through the descriptors
The task below was written for this article as a teaching example in the exam's style — not a real or predicted question. "The bar chart shows the percentage of commuters using four modes of transport — car, bus, train and bicycle — in one city in 2000 and 2020."
Model answer (174 words):
The bar chart compares the proportion of commuters travelling to work by car, bus, train and bicycle in one city in 2000 and 2020.
Overall, the car remained the most common way to commute in both years, but its dominance weakened considerably. Cycling recorded the largest growth of any mode, while the bus was the only one to decline.
In 2000, exactly half of commuters drove to work, twice the share of the 25% who took the bus. Trains carried 18% of commuters, and just 7% cycled.
By 2020 the picture had rebalanced. Car use had fallen to 38% — still the largest share, but well below its earlier level. Train travel expanded to 26%, overtaking the bus, whose share contracted to 17%. The most striking change, however, was in cycling, which almost trebled to 19%, drawing nearly level with both the bus and the train.
Task Achievement: a clear two-sentence overview (leader weakening, biggest riser, only decliner), then selected, highlighted features — every mode covered, no cell-reading. That is the Band 7 wording made visible.
Coherence: bodies split by year with each mode's change explicit; linking done by comparison ("twice the share", "overtaking") rather than mechanical adverbs.
Lexis and grammar: proportion paraphrases (half, share), varied movement verbs (fell, expanded, contracted, trebled), a past perfect ("had fallen") and multiplier structures — range in the service of accuracy, with clean sentences throughout.
How do you use the band descriptors to improve?
Score your own practice answers criterion by criterion, not with one gut-feel number. After each timed report, ask four separate questions: Is there a clear overview with selected features? Is the information grouped and ordered? Is the trend language varied and exact? What proportion of sentences are error-free?
Self-scoring has a blind spot, though: you cannot reliably see your own error density or judge whether your overview reads as "clear".
The IELTS Writing Checker closes that gap — it grades against these same four criteria and returns a per-criterion breakdown, so you can watch each score move across weeks of practice rather than guessing.
Read the primary source once, too: the official Writing band descriptors are a free public PDF, with Task 1 on its first three pages. Twenty minutes with the real wording — alongside the routine in our writing improvement guide — turns every practice session into a measured one.