IELTS Writing Task 2: How to Reach Band 7

Why Band 7 Feels Like a Wall

Most candidates plateau at band 6 or 6.5 in Writing Task 2, even after months of practice. This usually isn't a vocabulary problem—it's a consistency problem. Band 6 essays often have good moments: one strong sentence, one nice word, one clear point. Band 7 essays sustain that quality across the whole response.

The examiner scores you against four criteria, each worth 25% of your Task 2 mark: Task Response, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. You cannot get band 7 overall by being brilliant in one area and weak in another—the criteria are averaged, and a weak criterion drags the whole score down. This guide breaks down what band 7 actually looks like in each area, then gives you a structure and examples you can reuse in any essay.

Task Response: Answer the Whole Question, Not Half of It

At band 7, you must address every part of the prompt, not just the topic in general. If the question asks you to discuss both views AND give your own opinion, a band 6 essay often discusses both views but forgets to state a clear opinion—or states it only in the conclusion, too late to be developed. A band 7 essay makes the opinion clear from the introduction and keeps it consistent throughout.

Band 7 also requires ideas that are extended and supported, not just listed. Writing 'social media affects mental health' and moving on is a band 5-6 habit. Band 7 means explaining the mechanism (how it affects mental health), then giving a specific, plausible example or consequence.

• Underline every instruction word in the question before you plan (discuss, evaluate, to what extent, both views, your opinion).
• State your position in the introduction in one clear sentence—avoid vague hedging like 'there are many opinions about this.'
• For each main idea, add one sentence of explanation (why/how) and one sentence of specific support (example, consequence, or comparison).

Coherence and Cohesion: One Idea Per Paragraph, Clearly Linked

Band 7 essays have a clear central idea in each body paragraph, and everything in that paragraph relates to it. A common band 6 mistake is drifting—starting a paragraph about unemployment and ending it talking about education policy. Keep one idea per paragraph and make sure your topic sentence names it.

Cohesive devices matter, but band 7 does not mean stuffing in 'moreover,' 'furthermore,' and 'in addition' every other sentence. Overusing linking words is a classic band 6 ceiling. Band 7 uses a mix of linking words, pronoun reference, and repeated key terms to connect ideas naturally, the way you would in clear spoken explanation.

• Write a one-sentence summary of each paragraph's main idea before you draft it—if you can't summarise it in one sentence, it's not focused enough.
• Vary your linking: not just 'however' and 'furthermore,' but also referencing back ('this approach,' 'such measures,' 'the result of this').
• Read your essay back and check: does paragraph 2 clearly follow from paragraph 1, or does it feel like a new, unrelated point?

Lexical Resource: Precision Beats 'Impressive' Words

Band 7 requires vocabulary that is flexible and precise enough to express nuanced ideas, with only occasional errors in word choice or collocation. It does not require rare, complicated words. In fact, forcing in a thesaurus word you don't fully understand (like writing 'ameliorate' when you mean 'improve slightly') often creates the exact errors that cap your score.

The safest route to band 7 vocabulary is topic-specific precision: instead of 'bad for the environment,' write 'contributes to air pollution' or 'accelerates deforestation.' Instead of 'many people,' write 'a growing number of urban residents.' These are natural, accurate upgrades—not decoration.

• Build a small bank of 15-20 topic-specific phrases (education, environment, technology, crime, health) rather than memorising 'advanced' single words.
• Avoid repeating the exact same word for a key concept—use a synonym or a related phrase instead, but only if you're sure it's accurate.
• Check collocations: 'commit a crime' not 'do a crime'; 'raise awareness' not 'rise awareness.'

Grammar: Frequent Error-Free Sentences, Not Perfection

Band 7 does not mean zero mistakes. It means a good mix of simple and complex sentences, with many of them completely error-free, and a few minor slips that don't affect meaning. Trying to write only complex sentences to 'sound advanced' often backfires—long sentences with unclear grammar score lower than a mix of clean simple and complex ones.

A reliable technique: write one simple sentence, then one complex sentence (using because, although, which, if, or a relative clause), then repeat. This naturally creates the range examiners look for without forcing unnatural structures.

A Repeatable Four-Paragraph Structure

You don't need a different structure for every essay type. This four-paragraph template works for opinion essays, discussion essays, and problem-solution essays with small adjustments, and it naturally supports strong Task Response and Coherence scores.

Introduction: paraphrase the question in one sentence, then state your position or preview your response in a second sentence. Body Paragraph 1: one main idea, one explanation sentence, one specific example. Body Paragraph 2: a second main idea, following the same pattern. Conclusion: summarise your main points in one sentence and restate your position—no new ideas here.

Before and After: Upgrading a Body Paragraph

Prompt: 'Some believe technology has made life more convenient, while others believe it has made life more complicated. Discuss both views and give your opinion.'

Before (typical band 6): 'Technology makes life easier. For example, people can use phones to do many things. This is good because it saves time. So technology is very convenient for people nowadays.' This paragraph has one idea repeated rather than developed, vague vocabulary ('do many things'), and only simple sentences.

After (band 7 level): 'One clear advantage of modern technology is that it removes barriers of time and distance. Banking, shopping and communicating, which once required travelling or waiting in queues, can now be completed within seconds through a smartphone. As a result, people are able to redirect the hours they save towards work, family or rest, which arguably improves overall quality of life.' Notice the specific examples, the relative clause ('which once required...'), the precise phrase ('redirect the hours'), and the clear cause-effect link—all without using obscure vocabulary.

A Simple Self-Check Before You Submit

With five minutes left, don't try to fix everything—check for the mistakes that cost the most marks. Confirm you've answered every part of the question, that each paragraph has one clear idea, that you haven't repeated the same linking word more than twice, and that your sentences aren't all the same length and structure.

You can build this checking habit by writing practice essays regularly and comparing your first and final drafts. Bandleep offers free IELTS Writing practice with AI-estimated band scores, which is a useful way to see patterns in your errors across multiple essays—just remember these are practice estimates, not official IELTS results.