Task Response: What Examiners Are Actually Looking For

Task response is the first of the four criteria an examiner scores your Writing Task 2 essay against, and it is the one your level of English protects least. It measures whether you answered the question you were asked, took a clear position on it, and developed that position into ideas a reader can follow. An essay written in flawless English that answers a slightly different question loses marks here that nothing else can win back.

This guide is part of our series on the four Writing criteria. For how the criteria combine into your Writing band, start with How IELTS Writing Is Marked. This one covers task response alone.

What task response measures

IELTS publishes exactly what this criterion assesses. The official key assessment criteria list five things: how fully you respond to the task, how adequately your main ideas are extended and supported, how relevant your ideas are, how clearly you open the essay, establish your position and draw conclusions, and whether your format suits the task.

Two ground rules sit beside the criterion. Task 2 asks for at least 250 words, and answers that fall seriously short lose marks. And the response must be full, connected text: bullet points and note form are penalised whatever the quality of the ideas inside them.

The ladder from band 5 to band 8

The public band descriptors describe task response at every band, and reading a few bands side by side shows what moves a score.

At band 5, the prompt is incompletely addressed. A position exists but its development is not always clear, ideas are limited and not sufficiently developed, and material repeats.

At band 6, the main parts of the prompt are addressed, though some more fully than others. The position is directly relevant to the prompt, but the conclusions drawn from it may be unclear, unjustified or repetitive. The main ideas are relevant, but some are not developed enough and some of the supporting evidence is thin or off target.

At band 7, the main parts of the prompt are appropriately addressed and the position is clear and developed. Ideas are extended and supported. The faults that remain are a tendency to over generalise and a lack of precision in the support.

At band 8, the position is well developed and the ideas are well extended and supported, with only occasional lapses in content.

What changes from band 6 to band 7

Put the band 6 and band 7 rows next to each other and the difference is development, not ideas. Both bands describe relevant ideas and a relevant position. What band 6 lacks is follow-through: ideas named but not pushed, conclusions stated but not justified. Band 7 is what the same ideas look like once each one is explained and illustrated.

So the move from 6 to 7 rarely means finding better ideas. It means taking the ideas you already have further: say why it is true, show a consequence, give one concrete example, then tie it to the question. Our guide to structuring Task 2 calls under-developed ideas the most common band 6 trap, and task response is the criterion where that trap closes.

Writing for this criterion

Four habits cover most of what task response rewards.

Answer every part of the question. If the prompt asks whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, weigh them. Describing both sides without weighing them leaves part of the task undone. The band 4 descriptor uses the word tangential for answers that drift, and it points at the usual cause: misunderstanding the prompt.

Keep your position visible. State it in the introduction, hold it through the body paragraphs, and return to it in the conclusion. At band 4, the descriptors say a position is discernible but the reader has to read carefully to find it. Make yours impossible to miss.

Develop fewer ideas further. One idea pushed through explanation and example scores better than three ideas named and abandoned.

Write your own essay. The scoring rules are blunt about this: an answer that has been totally memorised is rated band 0, copied rubric is discounted, and plagiarised text is penalised.

Task response is a quarter of your Task 2 band, and Task 2 counts twice as much as Task 1 toward your Writing score, so this criterion moves your result more than any other single row in the descriptors. 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.

The public Writing band descriptors and key assessment criteria are published on ielts.org. Descriptors updated May 2023; last checked August 2026.