Understanding Band Descriptors in Detail

Band descriptors are the official criteria that IELTS examiners use to score your Writing and Speaking. Understanding exactly what each band level requires — and what distinguishes one band from the next — allows you to target your preparation with surgical precision. This lesson dissects the band descriptors for Writing and Speaking so you know precisely what to aim for.

---

What Are Band Descriptors?

Band descriptors are detailed descriptions of the performance expected at each band level (1–9) for each assessment criterion. They are published by Cambridge Assessment English and are freely available on the IELTS website.

For Writing, there are separate descriptors for:

• Task 1 (Academic) — Task Achievement
• Task 1 (General Training) — Task Achievement
• Task 2 — Task Response
• Coherence and Cohesion (shared)
• Lexical Resource (shared)
• Grammatical Range and Accuracy (shared)

For Speaking, there are descriptors for:

• Fluency and Coherence
• Lexical Resource
• Grammatical Range and Accuracy
• Pronunciation

---

Writing Task 2: Task Response (Bands 5–8)

Task Response is about how well you answer the question. Here is what each band requires: