WritingGuide
Task Response: What Examiners Are Actually Looking For
Task response checks whether you answered the question you were given. Your position must be clear and your ideas developed. This guide shows the bands, and what changes from band 6 to band 7.
Part 1 of 4in Writing band descriptors
Good English does not protect you on this criterion. An essay can be written in excellent English and still answer a slightly different question. A low task response band pulls the whole task score down, however good the English is.
Task response is one of the four criteria for Writing Task 2. Task 1 is marked on task achievement instead source: ielts.org.
Our Writing Task 1 guide explains how that task works.
This guide is part of our series on the four Writing criteria. The hub is How IELTS Writing Is Marked, and the next part covers coherence and cohesion.
What task response measures
In Task 2, you form a position on a question or statement and develop it, in at least 250 words. Your ideas should be supported by evidence, and your examples may come from your own experience source: ielts.org.
TR is task response. In plain words: answer the whole question, and develop your main ideas. Keep them relevant, and make your position clear from the first paragraph to the last. Write an essay, not notes.
An answer written in notes or bullet points is penalised. So is an answer that is not related to the topic source: ielts.org.
If your answer is too short, there may not be enough evidence of your language to award a higher band source: ielts.org.
The ladder from band 5 to band 9
In the Task 2 band descriptors, every band from 5 upwards has a position and some main ideas. What changes as you move up is how far those ideas are developed.
| Band | What the descriptors describe |
|---|---|
| 5 | The main parts of the prompt are incompletely addressed. The writer gives a position, but its development is not always clear. Some main ideas are given, but they are limited and not developed enough. There may be some repetition. |
| 6 | The main parts of the prompt are addressed, though some may be more fully covered than others. The position is directly relevant, but its conclusions may be unclear, unjustified or repetitive. Main ideas are relevant, but some may not be developed enough, and some support may be less relevant or inadequate. |
| 7 | The main parts of the prompt are appropriately addressed. The position is clear and developed. Main ideas are extended and supported, but there may be a tendency to over-generalise, or a lack of focus and precision in the support. |
| 8 | The prompt is appropriately and sufficiently addressed. The position is clear and well developed. Ideas are relevant, well extended and supported. There may be occasional omissions or lapses in content. |
| 9 | The prompt is explored in depth. A clear and fully developed position directly answers the question. Lapses in content or support are extremely rare. |
What changes from band 6 to band 7
At band 6, the position and the main ideas are relevant, but some ideas "may be insufficiently developed". At band 7, main ideas are "extended and supported" source: ielts.org.
So the move from 6 to 7 is rarely about finding better ideas. It is about taking the ideas you already have further.
Here is one body paragraph written two ways, for this page. The prompt asks whether university education should be free.
Free university would help society. It would give more people a chance, it would create a better workforce, and it would reduce inequality.note 1
Free university would help society because more people could afford to study.note 2 At present, a student from a poor family may choose work over a degree because of the cost. If fees were removed, that choice would depend on ability, not money.note 3 Over time, this would bring more people from poor families into skilled jobs,note 4 which is why I support the idea.
- At band 6, some main ideas "may be insufficiently developed" source: ielts.org. Here three ideas are named in one sentence, and none of them is explained.
- It is better to have one core idea that is extended than a list of separate items source: IDP. So the second version keeps one idea.
- You can extend an idea with an explanation, an example, a consequence or a concession source: IDP. This sentence and the one before it explain the idea with a real situation.
- At band 7, the position is "clear and developed" source: ielts.org. This sentence gives the consequence, then links it back to the writer's position.
The second version gives up two of the three ideas. What it gains is the development that the band 7 descriptor calls "extended and supported".
How to improve your task response
Answer every part of the question
If the prompt asks whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, you have to weigh them. Describing both sides without weighing them leaves part of the task undone.
At band 4, the answer may be "tangential", possibly because of "some misunderstanding of the prompt" source: ielts.org.
A tangential answer drifts away from the question. Read the question twice before you plan, and underline each thing it asks you to do.
Keep your position visible
At band 4, "a position is discernible, but the reader has to read carefully to find it" source: ielts.org.
State your position in the introduction. Keep to it in each body paragraph, and say it again in the conclusion. A reader should never have to search for what you think.
Develop fewer ideas
Plan one main idea for each body paragraph, not three. Then give each one an explanation, an example and a consequence, as the second version above does.
Write your own essay
An answer that is proven to be totally memorised is rated band 0, and any "copied rubric must be discounted" source: ielts.org. Plagiarised writing is severely penalised source: ielts.org.
Copied rubric means wording copied from the task, and discounted means it is not counted. So learn ideas and useful language, not whole paragraphs to repeat.
How much it counts
The four criteria are weighted equally, and the score for a task is their average source: ielts.org. Task 2 counts twice as much as Task 1 in your Writing score source: ielts.org.
So task response is a quarter of your mark for the task that counts most. The band score calculator shows how your Writing band then combines with the other three sections.
Next in the series: coherence and cohesion, the criterion most candidates misread. For a plan across all four criteria, see our Writing improvement plan.
The public Writing band descriptors and key assessment criteria are published on ielts.org. The rules on length, notes and plagiarism and the weight of Task 2 are on the Academic Writing format page, and the equal weighting of the criteria on IELTS scoring in detail. The advice on extending one idea is from IDP's article on Task 2 essay types. Descriptors updated May 2023. Last checked on 27 September 2026. The example paragraphs were written for this page and are not from any test.
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- Compass IELTS Editorial Team, the team behind the Compass IELTS band score tools and practice tests
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