Problem & Solution

"The government should do more"Task Response capped at 6

Vague measures with no mechanism are the defining feature of a Band 6 problem–solution essay. "Raise awareness", "invest more", "take action" say nothing about what would actually change.

Fix: Every solution needs an actor, an action and an effect: WHO does WHAT, and WHY that changes the problem.

Solutions that do not match the problemsCoherence 6 · Task Response 6

If body 1 is about traffic congestion and body 2 proposes better recycling, the essay has answered two unrelated questions.

Fix: Plan in pairs. Write problem 1 → solution 1, problem 2 → solution 2 before writing a single sentence, and reference the problem explicitly when you introduce its solution.

Four problems and one solutionTask Response 6

Candidates find problems easier to generate than solutions and run out of time. Both halves are marked, so an essay with a thin solutions paragraph has under-covered half the task.

Fix: Cap yourself at two problems. If you can only solve one properly, write about one problem and one solution, both developed.

Describing the problem instead of explaining itTask Response 6

"Traffic is very bad in big cities and people waste a lot of time" restates the situation from the question rather than analysing what causes it or what it leads to.

Fix: Ask "so what?" after each problem. The mark is in the consequence — who is harmed, how badly, and what follows.

Utopian solutionsTask Response 7 at best

"Everyone should stop using cars" or "companies should stop polluting" are not measures; they are wishes. A solution that ignores cost, politics or human behaviour is not credited as developed.

Fix: Choose measures that a real government or organisation could actually implement, and acknowledge the main obstacle in one clause.

Only simple sentences, accurately writtenGrammatical Range & Accuracy capped at 6

Range is assessed alongside accuracy, so an essay with no errors and no subordination cannot reach Band 7 on this criterion. It is the most demoralising cap in the paper because the writing looks clean — and it is invisible to a learner who only ever checks for mistakes.

Fix: Put one complex structure in every paragraph deliberately: a cause clause in body 1, a concessive in body 2, a relative clause somewhere in each. Range is a choice you make before you write, not something you notice afterwards.

Comma splices joining full sentencesGrammatical Range & Accuracy 6.5

Two independent clauses joined by a comma — "fees are high, students cannot afford them" — is the commonest punctuation error in Task 2, and because it usually happens at exactly the point an idea is being developed, it recurs throughout the essay rather than once.

Fix: Join with a conjunction, a semicolon or a full stop — or, better, subordinate one clause, which fixes the punctuation and adds range in the same edit.

Ambitious words used inaccuratelyLexical Resource capped at 6.5

The descriptors are explicit that an ambitious word used wrongly scores lower than a simple word used correctly. "Detrimental impact for the society", "make a benefit", "in the nutshell" all signal vocabulary learned as a list rather than in use, and they cost more than the plain words they replaced would have.

Fix: Use a word only if you know the grammar that goes with it: what preposition it takes, what part of speech it is, what it collocates with. If you are unsure, the precise simple word wins.

Collocation errors inside good sentencesLexical Resource capped at 7

This is the clearest single thing separating Band 7 from Band 8, and it is almost never drilled. "Make a research", "do a mistake", "solve an issue", "a big impact for society" are all grammatically correct and all wrong, and because they appear inside otherwise ambitious sentences they tell the examiner the vocabulary was learned from a list rather than from use. The descriptors put precision and natural word partnership at the top of this criterion — not rarity.

Fix: Learn words in partnerships, never alone. The make/do split covers most of it: MAKE an effort, a mistake, progress, a decision; DO research, work, damage. Then the Task 2 core: conduct research, implement a policy, address an issue, play a role in, pose a threat to, have an impact ON.

Memorised phrases and mechanical linkersLexical Resource 6 · Coherence 6

"Nowadays, in this modern era, it is a controversial topic" and a stack of "Firstly / Moreover / Furthermore / Last but not least" are both flagged by examiners as memorised. They cost twice: Lexical Resource for the phrasing, Coherence for cohesion used mechanically rather than meaningfully.

Fix: Delete every opener that would fit any essay on any topic, and replace stacked connectors with reference cohesion — "this pressure", "such a system", "that assumption".

Articles and agreement, everywhere and alwaysGrammatical Range & Accuracy 6.5

Article and subject–verb agreement errors are individually trivial and collectively decisive. Appearing in almost every paragraph, they read as a systematic failure of control rather than as slips, and that is the difference between a 7 and a 6.5 on this criterion.

Fix: Learn the three rules that cover most cases: generic plurals take no article; a singular countable always takes one; the verb agrees with the head of the subject, not the nearest noun. Then spend your last two minutes checking only for these.

How many problems and solutions should I write about?

Two of each at most, and one of each is acceptable if both are fully developed. Depth is marked; coverage is not. Four named problems with no explanation scores lower than one problem analysed properly.

Do my solutions have to be realistic?

Yes. A measure that ignores cost, politics or human behaviour is not treated as developed. Naming an actor, an action and an effect — and conceding the main obstacle in one clause — is what makes a solution credible.

What is the difference between "causes" and "problems"?

Causes explain WHY the situation exists; problems describe the harm it does. Read the prompt carefully — answering with causes when the question asked for problems (or the reverse) is off-task and costs Task Response.

Can I put a problem and its solution in the same paragraph?

You can, and it is a legitimate structure — one paragraph per problem-and-solution pair. It is harder to control under time pressure, though, so the two-paragraph split (all problems, then all solutions) is the safer default.