How writing and speaking are marked
Reading and listening are marked by an answer key — right or wrong. Writing and speaking are not. An examiner reads or listens to your answer and places it against four published criteria, and it is worth knowing what those are, because it changes what you should practise.
Writing: four criteria, equally weighted
Task 1 and Task 2 are marked on their own separate descriptor tables. They share three criteria and differ on the first.
- Task Achievement — Whether you covered what the question actually asked.
- Coherence & Cohesion — Whether it is organised and holds together.
- Lexical Resource — Your vocabulary — range, precision, and control.
- Grammatical Range & Accuracy — Your grammar — range, and how often it slips.
- Task Response — Whether you answered the question and supported your position.
- Coherence & Cohesion — Whether it is organised and holds together.
- Lexical Resource — Your vocabulary — range, precision, and control.
- Grammatical Range & Accuracy — Your grammar — range, and how often it slips.
Task 1's Task Achievement column is worded differently for Academic and for General Training, because the tasks themselves are different — a chart or process for Academic, a letter for General Training.
Speaking: four criteria
- Fluency & Coherence — Whether you keep going, and whether it follows.
- Lexical Resource — Your vocabulary — range, precision, and control.
- Grammatical Range & Accuracy — Your grammar — range, and how often it slips.
- Pronunciation — How clearly you are understood. Not scored by BandAI — see below.
The two rules that decide your band
The descriptors say a script must fully fit the positive features of a band to be awarded it. Almost meeting Band 7 is Band 6.
The descriptors mark certain negative features as limiting the rating. If your answer shows one, it cannot sit at that band no matter how strong the rest is. This is why a single habit can hold a whole criterion down for months.
Each criterion is judged on its own column. That is why your feedback here is per criterion and never a single overall verdict — your grammar can be a band above your vocabulary, and only one of them is worth your time this week.
How BandAI marks against these
The published band descriptors — the Writing set updated May 2023, and the Speaking set — are transcribed word for word and given to the model that marks your work, along with both rules above. It is not marking to an idea of what a Band 7 sounds like; it is placing your answer against the same table an examiner uses, criterion by criterion, and then telling you what was weak, why it costs marks, what to do, and a corrected example.
Speaking has four official criteria. Your recording is transcribed and the transcript is marked on the first three. Pronunciation cannot be judged from a transcript, so we do not score it and we do not estimate it. Your speaking band here is therefore an indication built from three of the four criteria — the real test will also mark the fourth.
Source: the public IELTS Writing Band Descriptors (updated May 2023) and the public IELTS Speaking Band Descriptors. BandAI is not affiliated with or endorsed by the IELTS partners.
See where you sit against these criteria right now. The assessment is free and marks all four skills.
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