Guides / Scoring and band descriptors
Band 8 IELTS Writing: The Gap Between 7 and 8, Sentence by Sentence
Candidates who reach band 7 in writing usually stall there. They add longer words, they add more linking phrases, they write more, and the band does not move. The advice they were given, use advanced vocabulary and complex sentences, is the advice that keeps them at 7.
The distance between 7 and 8 is smaller and more specific than it looks. This page takes one band 7 paragraph, rewrites it at band 8, and names every change along with the criterion it affects. If you are below 7, the earlier step is covered in band 6 to band 7.
What the descriptors change between 7 and 8
The public band descriptors are worth reading side by side, because the wording shifts in a consistent direction. At band 7 something is present. At band 8 it is under control.
| Criterion | Band 7 | Band 8 |
|---|---|---|
| Task Response | Position is clear, main ideas are extended, some may be underdeveloped | Every part of the question is covered, ideas are well developed and relevant throughout |
| Coherence and Cohesion | Logical progression, linking is sometimes over or underused | Information is sequenced logically, cohesion is managed so well it stops being noticeable |
| Lexical Resource | Some less common vocabulary, occasional errors in word choice or form | A wide resource used fluently and precisely, with only occasional slips |
| Grammatical Range | A variety of structures, errors present but meaning is clear | A wide range, the majority of sentences error free, errors are rare |
Read the right-hand column again. Nothing in it asks for rarer words or longer sentences. Three of the four ask for fewer errors and better fit, and Coherence and Cohesion explicitly rewards linking you do not notice. Band 8 is band 7 with the noise removed.
A band 7 paragraph
The question: Some people think that governments should spend money on public libraries, while others believe the money is better spent on internet access. Discuss both views and give your opinion.
Here is a body paragraph a solid band 7 candidate writes.
Firstly, there are many people who think that libraries are very important for the society. This is because libraries give free books to people who cannot afford to buy them, and also they give a quiet place for studying. Moreover, in many cities libraries organise activities for children and old people. Therefore, if the government closes the libraries, these people will lose an important resource and it will be a big problem for them.
There is nothing broken here. The position is clear, three reasons appear, the grammar is largely correct, and an examiner would have no trouble following it. It is genuinely a 7.
The same paragraph at band 8
Supporters of continued library funding point to a role that internet access does not replace. Libraries lend books at no cost to households that could not otherwise buy them, and they provide something scarcer than information: a quiet room. They also run activities for children and for older residents, which in many neighbourhoods is the only free provision of its kind. Withdraw the funding and it is these groups, rather than the confident and well connected, who lose most.
Same three reasons. Same length, near enough. Here is what changed.
The seven changes, named
1. The signpost became a sentence. Firstly, there are many people who think is eleven words that carry one word of meaning. Supporters of continued library funding point to does the same navigational work while already advancing the argument. This is what the band 8 descriptor means by cohesion you do not notice. Cutting firstly, moreover, therefore is often the single largest jump available, and it costs nothing to learn.
2. A fixed error was removed. The society is wrong; society in the general sense takes no article. Article errors are the most common accuracy leak at band 7, and they are invisible to most candidates because they do not block meaning. They still count. If you speak a first language without articles, spend one practice session a week on nothing else; the articles guide sets out the three cases that cover most of the exam.
3. Vague intensifiers were replaced with specifics. Very important, a big problem and an important resource all say strong without saying what. A role that internet access does not replace and the only free provision of its kind say the same thing with content in them. Task Response rewards developed ideas, and an idea is developed when a reader could disagree with it.
4. Verbs became precise. Give free books became lend books at no cost. Libraries do not give books away, they lend them, and the word choice shows the writer knows what a library is. That precision is the Lexical Resource criterion's actual test, not word rarity.
5. One structure was varied deliberately. Withdraw the funding and it is these groups who lose most uses an imperative conditional and a cleft. Both are ordinary in written English and neither is decorative. Band 8 asks for a wide range of structures with the majority of sentences error free, so add variety only where you can control it.
6. A repeated word was broken up. Libraries appears three times in the band 7 version and twice in the rewrite, with they doing the rest. Repetition of a key noun is not an error, but replacing it with a pronoun where the reference is obvious is exactly the invisible cohesion the descriptor describes.
7. The reasoning got an edge. Rather than the confident and well connected adds a contrast that was not in the original. It shows the writer has thought about who benefits, which is the difference between covering the view and understanding it.
What did not change
The rewrite contains no rare vocabulary. The longest word is neighbourhoods. There is no plethora, no myriad, no detrimental ramifications. Candidates aiming at 8 often add exactly those, and they usually cost marks, because a less common word used slightly wrongly is a Lexical Resource error while a plain word used correctly is not.
The paragraph also did not get longer. Band 8 essays are not longer essays. Writing 400 words in 40 minutes leaves no time to check, and unchecked writing is where the errors that keep you at 7 survive.
How to practise this
Take a body paragraph you have already written and marked at around 7. Do not write a new one. Then run these five passes over it, one at a time.
- Delete every firstly, moreover, in addition and therefore. Rewrite the sentence so the connection is carried by its meaning instead.
- Circle every article and every plural, and check each one.
- Find every very, a lot, important and big problem, and replace each with a specific detail.
- Check each main verb: is it the exact verb, or an approximate one?
- Read it aloud. Anything you stumble over, an examiner will notice too.
Five passes over one paragraph teaches more than three new essays. The errors that hold a band 7 writer at 7 are habits, and a habit only changes when you look straight at it.
When you want to see which criterion is actually holding your answer down, paste a full essay into Bandly. You get a separate estimate for each of the four criteria with the sentences behind it, which is what tells you whether your next month goes on articles or on development.
Find out what this essay would score
Paste your own answer and Bandly returns an estimated band for each of the four criteria, with the sentences that pulled the score down. Under a cent an essay, about six seconds.
Check my essay