The questions nobody answers the same way twice
Ask five teachers whether you can write "I" in an IELTS essay and you will get five answers, two of which are confident and wrong. These small questions eat hours of study time and cause real worry the night before the test. Here are nine of them, answered straight, with the myths left out.
5 straight answers
02Does spelling really count?
03Do I need real facts and statistics?
04Can my opinion be unpopular?
05Should I memorize a full essay?
4 more, with the fix
Can I use don't, it's, can't?
✕It's clear that governments can't solve this alone.
✓It is clear that governments cannot solve this alone.
Task 2 is formal writing, so write the full forms. Short forms are perfectly fine in an informal General Training letter to a friend.
Can I use bullet points or headings?
✕Body 1: - cost - traffic - pollution
✓The first problem is cost. Running a car in a large city now takes a serious share of an average salary.
The task asks for continuous writing. Notes and lists are not marked as an essay, so this is one of the few genuine rules on the list.
What if I am short of words?
✕In conclusion, as I said before, this is a very important issue for everybody in society today.
✓Add a real example to a paragraph you already wrote, in two or three sentences.
Padding is easy for an examiner to see, and repeating yourself hurts more than the missing words would. Adding real content is the only safe way to grow an essay.
Can I change my mind halfway?
✕Paragraph 2 argues that cars should be banned. Paragraph 3 explains why banning cars is unfair.
✓Choose one position and let every paragraph defend it, while still admitting the other side exists.
You are allowed to mention the opposite view, but your position must be the same in the first line and the last. A drifting opinion is scored as an unclear one.
Quick answers to the rest
✓Under 250 words in Task 2 lowers your score. About 260 to 290 is a comfortable target.
✓There is no maximum, but 400 words means more mistakes and less time to check. Length is not a score.
✓Your handwriting is not marked, but it must be readable. Nothing the examiner cannot read can earn a mark.
✓You do not need a title for your essay. Start with your first paragraph.
✓Four or five paragraphs is normal for Task 2. There is no magic number, only clear organization.
The thing all nine have in common
Look back at the list. Almost every question is about a rule that does not exist. Students lose whole evenings to them, then walk into the test still unsure whether their weakest criterion is grammar or task response. The rules are small. The criteria are everything. Once these nine are out of your head, you can spend that worry on the four things that actually carry the marks.
Read next
The parts that really carry the marks: how your IELTS writing band is really calculated and the 4 questions your examiner is secretly asking.
Stop guessing what your essay is doing
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