How to plan an IELTS Task 2 essay in five minutes
Five minutes of planning feels like time you cannot spare. It is the best-spent five minutes of the Writing test — here is what to do with them.
Task 2 counts for twice as much as Task 1, so it deserves about forty of your sixty minutes, and at least 250 words. Spend the first five of those minutes planning. Candidates who start writing immediately usually change their mind halfway through — and an essay that changes its mind is the one thing Task Response does not forgive.
Minute 1: find every question inside the question
Read the prompt twice and name its type. To what extent do you agree? wants a position. Discuss both views and give your own opinion wants both sides and your view. Advantages and disadvantages, causes and solutions, and prompts that ask two direct questions each want every part answered.
Underline each part. An essay that answers half of a two-part question is capped on Task Response, however good its English.
Minute 2: decide what you think, and say it early
The public band descriptors ask, at Band 7, for a clear position throughout the response. That means your view appears in the introduction, stays the same in every body paragraph, and returns in the conclusion. You do not need to believe it. You need to hold it for 250 words.
Minutes 3 and 4: two ideas, each with an example
One main idea per body paragraph, developed rather than listed: the claim, why it is true, an example, and a line tying it back to the question. Two well-developed ideas beat four mentioned ones.
- Position
- Agree, with one exception
- Paragraph 1
- Free entry widens access — students, families; example: school visits
- Paragraph 2
- Money can come from elsewhere — donations, shops, charging for special exhibitions
- Exception
- Small private museums may not survive without tickets
Minute 5: check the plan against the prompt
Read the question one more time and tick each underlined part against your plan. This is the moment to catch the missing half of a two-part question — not in minute 38.
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