IELTS Writing Time Management: Why Task 1 Should Take 20 Minutes and Usually Takes 30

You get 60 minutes for the whole IELTS writing paper. Most candidates spend about 30 minutes on Task 1 and then panic through Task 2. That single habit costs more marks than any grammar mistake in the paper, because Task 2 is worth twice as much as Task 1.

This guide shows where the extra ten minutes go, what they cost, and a minute by minute plan you can practise this week.

The arithmetic almost nobody explains

Your writing band is not the average of your two task scores. Task 2 carries double the weight of Task 1. Think of it as three shares in total: one share for Task 1, two shares for Task 2.

Here is what that means in practice.

Look at the last two rows. A candidate with a very strong Task 1 and a weak Task 2 lands in the same place as a candidate with a weak Task 1 and a strong Task 2. The effort was not equal, but the result was.

Now imagine you spend ten extra minutes on Task 1 and lift it from 6.0 to 6.5. Those ten minutes came out of Task 2, which drops from 6.5 to 5.5. You gained half a band on the small task and lost a full band on the big one. That trade is always bad.

Where the ten minutes go

Candidates rarely overrun on purpose. The time leaks in four predictable places.

1. Rewriting the introduction. You paraphrase the chart description, dislike it, and write it again. This can take four minutes and earns nothing. The introduction of Task 1 is one sentence that says what the visual shows.
2. Describing every number. A chart with twelve data points does not need twelve sentences. Task 1 asks you to select and report the main features. Reporting all of them is not a higher answer; it is a longer one.
3. Counting words by hand. Counting 150 words costs a minute and breaks your concentration. Learn how many words fit on one line of your own handwriting, or in one paragraph in the computer delivered test, and count paragraphs instead.
4. Polishing. Fixing the same sentence three times in Task 1 while Task 2 has not been started yet is the most expensive kind of care.

The 60 minute plan

Practise with a clock in front of you. The times below are targets, not rules from the test provider.

Minutes 0 to 3. Read Task 1 and decide the shape. What kind of visual is it? What are the two or three biggest features? Write nothing yet. Underline the highest value, the lowest value, and any point where lines cross.

Minutes 3 to 18. Write Task 1 straight through. One sentence of introduction. One sentence of overview naming the main trends. Then two body paragraphs that group the data. Do not stop to correct. If a word will not come, write the simple word and continue.

Minutes 18 to 20. Read Task 1 once. Check the third person s on your verbs, your articles, and your past tense endings. Two minutes. Then close it in your mind. You are not coming back.

Minutes 20 to 25. Plan Task 2. This is the five minutes candidates try to save and should never save. Decide your position. Choose two main ideas. Choose one example for each. Write these as six short notes, not sentences.

Minutes 25 to 55. Write Task 2. Introduction of two sentences. Two body paragraphs. Conclusion of two sentences. Thirty minutes for roughly 270 words is about nine words a minute, which is slower than it sounds.

Minutes 55 to 60. Check Task 2. Read for the four things that are quick to fix: articles, verb endings, plural s, and sentence fragments.

What the rushed version looks like

Here is the final paragraph of a Task 2 answer written in the last three minutes.

In conclusion, I think that there are many advantages and disadvantages of this topic, and government should be do more thing about it, so the society will be better in future for everyone.

Now the same idea written with ninety seconds of thinking time behind it.

In conclusion, remote work benefits employees more than it benefits city centres. Governments should therefore support flexible arrangements while investing in the local services that suddenly matter more.

The second version is not more advanced English. The vocabulary is ordinary. What changed is that the writer knew what the sentence was for before starting it. The first version has a grammar error in nearly every clause because the writer was composing and typing at the same time with no time left to reread.

That paragraph difference alone moves Grammatical Range and Accuracy, and the clearer position helps Task Response too.

The rule for when you are already behind

Sometimes the plan fails. It is minute 30 and Task 1 is unfinished. Do this.

Stop Task 1 wherever it is. Write one closing sentence so the answer does not end mid idea. Move to Task 2 immediately.

An incomplete Task 1 with a complete Task 2 scores better than the reverse, for the same weighting reason. Never let a Task 1 you are proud of eat the task that counts double.

Also remember the length requirements. Task 1 asks for at least 150 words and Task 2 for at least 250. Writing fewer than that limits how fully you can answer the question, and Task Response is judged on how fully you answered.

Three things to practise this week

1. Write Task 1 in 20 minutes, three times. Not perfectly. Just inside the time. Speed under pressure is a separate skill from writing well, and it only improves with a clock.
2. Plan five Task 2 questions without writing the essays. Five minutes each. Position, two ideas, two examples. You will finish twenty five minutes of practice having trained the exact skill that saves you ten minutes in the exam.
3. Time one full paper. Sixty minutes, both tasks, no pauses. Note the minute you started Task 2. If it was later than minute 22, your problem is not your English.

When you have a timed answer, the useful question is not whether it feels rushed but where the rushing shows. Bandly gives you an estimated band for each of the four criteria with the reasoning behind each one, so you can see whether the last five minutes cost you accuracy, structure, or both. The estimates are produced by a language model rather than a qualified examiner, so treat them as a guide to what to fix next.