A problem-solution essay gives you a problem and usually 2 jobs: explain it (its causes, or the problems it creates) and suggest how to deal with it. It is one form of IELTS Writing Task 2, where you get a "point of view, argument or problem" to discuss in at least 250 words and about 40 minutes.
Marks are usually lost in 2 places: answering the wrong first question (causes when it asked for problems), and solutions that could fit any essay, like the government should do more. Below: how to avoid both, a model essay and one paragraph at 3 levels.
How to spot a problem-solution question
ielts.org lists the cause/solution essay among common Task 2 question types, but its main advice is to read the question "carefully to see how many parts are in the question". Most problem-solution tasks ask 1 or 2 questions, and the last is about solutions: What can be done? What measures could be taken? When there are 2, the first decides what goes in your first body paragraph. As IDP points out, a question can belong to this type even without the words problem, solution or cause.
| The question asks | Body paragraph 1 | Body paragraph 2 |
|---|---|---|
| What are the causes of this, and what solutions can you suggest? | Causes: why it happens | Solutions to those causes |
| Why is this happening? What can be done about it? | Causes, even though the word cause is missing | Solutions to those causes |
| What problems does this cause, and how can they be solved? | Problems: the harm it does | Solutions to those problems |
| What are the effects of this, and what measures could be taken? | Effects: what follows from it | Measures that reduce those effects |
| How can this problem be solved? (one question only) | Solution 1, developed | Solution 2, developed |
Two more checks before you plan:
- Is an opinion requested? If the question adds Which solution is best? or Give your own opinion, state your view in the introduction and the conclusion. If not, your position is a clear answer to the question.
- Does it ask you to agree? Do you agree that this is a problem? What can be done? is a two-part question: answer both parts.
One topic, 2 different questions
The same topic can come with different first questions, and then body 1 changes completely:
| Part | Causes and solutions | Problems and solutions |
|---|---|---|
| The question | Why do households waste so much food, and what can be done about it? | What problems does household food waste cause, and how can they be solved? |
| Body 1 | Multi-buy offers; confusing date labels | Families lose money; rotting food in landfill adds to greenhouse gases |
| Body 2 | Single-item discounts; clearer labels | Meal planning to cut spending; council food-waste collections for compost or energy |
| A sentence that fits only here | Multi-buy offers make shoppers buy more than they can eat. | Every bag of salad thrown away is money the family has already spent. |
What the examiner looks for
Your essay gets 4 scores of equal weight (the criteria in plain English). For this essay type, 2 lines of the official Task 2 descriptors matter most:
- Cover both questions evenly. At band 6, "the main parts of the prompt are addressed (though some may be more fully covered than others)": a long causes paragraph and 2 lines of solutions.
- Develop, don't list. At band 7, "main ideas are extended and supported but there may be a tendency to over-generalise". At band 8, ideas are "well extended and supported".
What GoPrep data shows about this essay type
We looked at 8,073 Task 2 essays scored by the GoPrep AI examiner (28 July to 26 September 2026). Learners' first scored problem-solution essays averaged 6.0 (300 learners, causes-and-effects prompts included), and first essays of the other types 5.5 to 6.0: similar averages in this sample. Length showed a much bigger gap:
| Essay length | Essays | Average band | Average Task Response |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 250 words | 84 | 5.0 | 4.5 |
| 250 to 299 words | 248 | 6.0 | 6.5 |
| 300 words or more | 151 | 6.5 | 6.5 |
483 problem-solution essays (causes-and-effects prompts included) from 311 learners. Other Task 2 types showed the same pattern: 5.0, 6.0 and 6.5. Words counted by spaces.
About 1 in 6 problem-solution essays (84 of 483) was under 250 words. In those essays Task Response averaged 4.5, lower than the other 3 criteria (5.0 to 5.5). Length doesn't earn points by itself, since stronger writers also tend to write more. But 2 developed body paragraphs rarely fit into fewer than 250 words.
The GoPrep AI examiner also lists up to 3 priority fixes for each answer in a Band Contract. In problem-solution essays, language fixes came up most often:
| Priority fix | Problem-solution | Other Task 2 types | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Word choice and collocation | 57% | 50% | Words that go together: reduce waste, tackle a problem, not solve waste |
| Cohesion and reference | 48% | 47% | What this, it and they point to, and whether each linker fits |
| Subject-verb agreement | 35% | 40% | offers that make, each family has |
| Articles | 20% | 16% | the government, a solution, no article for food in general |
| Task and idea development | 12% | 12% | Each solution names who acts and which cause it fixes |
474 problem-solution essays (causes-and-effects prompts included) and 7,536 other Task 2 essays with a Band Contract. Each figure shows how often the fix was among up to 3 priority fixes, not how often the mistake occurred.
Fixes about answering the question itself (off-topic content, a part of the question missed) were rarer: 243 of 8,010 essays across all Task 2 types (3%), and 20 of 474 in problem-solution essays. But those 243 averaged 4.5 in Task Response from the AI examiner, against 6.0 for the rest. Language issues appeared often among the priority fixes, so keep your last 3 minutes to check them. For word choice and collocation, see Task 2 vocabulary grouped by meaning.
The 4-paragraph structure
IELTS doesn't set a number of paragraphs. The band 8 descriptor asks that "paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately", and 4 paragraphs is the simplest shape that gives each job its own space:
| Paragraph | Its job | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction | Paraphrase the problem (say it in your own words) and give a short answer to the question | 2 sentences, about 40 to 60 words |
| Body 1 | Causes, problems or effects: whichever the question named. 1 or 2, developed | About 90 to 110 words |
| Body 2 | Solutions, each tied to the cause or problem you named in body 1 | About 90 to 120 words |
| Conclusion | Sum up your answers to the question in new words, with no new ideas | 1 or 2 sentences |
Plan in 5 minutes: one question, step by step
A question written by the GoPrep team for practice:
In many countries, households throw away a large amount of the food they buy. Why does this happen, and what can be done to reduce it?
- Minute 1: name the 2 jobs. Why does this happen means causes. What can be done means solutions. So body 1 explains why food is wasted, not the harm it does.
- Minute 2: list fast. Causes: multi-buy offers, date labels, poor storage, busy lives. Solutions: new supermarket offers, clearer labels, campaigns, apps.
- Minute 3: test each cause with a chain. Date labels: "best before" is about quality, not safety → people read it as a deadline → edible food goes in the bin. The chain runs, so keep it. Busy lives: no single action fixes it, so drop it.
- Minute 4: aim a solution at each cause. Multi-buy offers → supermarkets replace them with single-item discounts on fresh food. Date labels → remove "best before" from fruit and vegetables and keep "use by" for foods that can become unsafe.
- Minute 5: write your answer sentence for the end of the introduction, with both the causes and the solutions: Multi-buy offers and confusing labels drive this waste; single-item discounts and clearer labels could reduce it.
Model answer (277 words)
A GoPrep practice example, not an officially marked script, so we don't give it a band.
In many parts of the world, families throw away a large share of the food they bring home. This waste stems mainly from multi-buy offers and confusing date labels, and replacing those offers and simplifying labels could reduce it considerably.
The first cause lies in supermarket promotions. Multi-buy deals, such as three bags of salad for the price of two, are hard to resist, so shoppers often take home more perishable food than they can eat before it spoils. A family planning a busy week may open one bag, forget the others and find them inedible a few days later. The second cause is confusion over labels. Many products carry a "best before" date, which refers to quality rather than safety, yet many consumers treat it as a deadline and discard food that is still edible.
Since multi-buy offers encourage overbuying, the most direct solution is for supermarkets to replace them on perishable produce with lower prices on single items. Shoppers would still save money, but they would be less likely to buy more than they need. This change could come from stores voluntarily or be required by law. The confusion over labels, meanwhile, is a job for food regulators: they could remove "best before" dates from fruit and vegetables, so that people judge freshness by look and smell, and keep "use by" dates on foods that can become unsafe. These measures would not end all waste, but they would target its two main causes.
In conclusion, households waste food largely because promotions push them to overbuy and because date labels are misunderstood. Ending multi-buy deals on fresh food and simplifying labels would tackle each cause directly.
Both body paragraphs are close in length, and The second cause, This change and meanwhile carry the reader instead of Firstly and Moreover. Here is what each part of paragraph 3 does:
| Job | In the paragraph | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Name the cause it answers | Since multi-buy offers encourage overbuying | Ties the solution to a cause from body 1 |
| Who acts, and what they do | supermarkets ... replace them on perishable produce with lower prices on single items | The who and what of the test above |
| How it helps | Shoppers would still save money, but they would be less likely to buy more than they need. | The how: the effect on the cause |
| A limit | These measures would not end all waste | Avoids a promise the paragraph can't support |
Band 6, 7 and 8: the same solutions paragraph
Body paragraph 2 of the food waste essay, 3 ways. These are GoPrep practice examples: the examiner marks the whole essay, so read them as a direction, not marked samples.
Closer to band 6
There are several solutions to this problem. Firstly, supermarkets should stop special offers which makes people buy too much food, because families cannot eat it all before it goes bad. Secondly, the government should educate people about food waste. Moreover, people should plan their shopping carefully. If everyone does these things, food waste will disappear.
Closer to band 7
The most effective solution is to change how supermarkets sell fresh food. Since multi-buy offers encourage people to buy more than they need, supermarkets should replace them with discounts on single items, so families only buy what they plan to eat. In addition, governments should make date labels clearer, because many people believe "best before" means the food is unsafe. With clearer labels, people would never throw away food that is still good.
Closer to band 8: paragraph 3 of the model answer above. It keeps the links to causes, and explains more precisely who could make each change and how it would help.
| Criterion | Closer to band 6 | Closer to band 7 | Closer to band 8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Task Response | 1 solution partly explained, 2 only named: some ideas "insufficiently developed" | 2 solutions tied to causes, but never throw away over-generalises | Who acts and how it helps, for both solutions: ideas "well extended and supported" |
| Coherence and Cohesion | Firstly, Secondly, Moreover: linking that is "mechanical" | Since, so and because link ideas inside sentences | Reference carries the flow: This change, The confusion over labels |
| Lexical Resource | General words: educate people, special offers | More precise: multi-buy offers, discounts on single items | Precise collocations: perishable produce, judge freshness, required by law |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | Mostly simple, one agreement error: offers which makes | Complex sentences with since and because, no errors | Passive, so that, relative clauses, no errors |
In these examples, the move from 6 to 7 is fewer solutions, each aimed at a cause, and the move to 8 is more precise explanation. The examiner judges the whole essay on all 4 criteria, so no single change sets a band.
Language for causes and solutions
Avoid absolute promises that your explanation doesn't support:
| Job | Phrases | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Tie a solution to a cause | Since..., To address this..., The most direct answer is... | Since multi-buy offers encourage overbuying, supermarkets could... |
| Match the claim to your support | could, would, is likely to, might | Clearer labels would reduce waste, rather than will end waste |
| Admit a limit | This would not..., but..., Although... | This would not end all waste, but it would target its main cause. |
More in our guide to linking words for Task 2.
Practice: plan your own essay
Your practice question, also by the GoPrep team:
Many young people are leaving villages and small towns to live in large cities. What problems does this cause, and what measures could be taken to solve them?
Plan check. The question asks for problems, so body 1 is the harm, not why young people leave. Problems for whom: the towns, the cities or both? Say which in the introduction. One developed pair: fewer working-age people → local schools and shops close → older residents lose services. Solution: tax relief for firms that open offices outside large cities, so jobs stay closer to home.
FAQ
How do I write a problem solution essay in IELTS?
Find what the question asks (usually causes or problems, then solutions), plan 1 or 2 developed ideas for each, and write 4 paragraphs: introduction, causes or problems, solutions, conclusion. Tie each solution to a cause or problem you named, in at least 250 words.
Do I need to give my opinion in a problem solution essay?
Only if the question asks for it, for example "Which solution do you think is best?". Otherwise your position is a clear answer to the question, stated in the introduction and repeated in the conclusion.
What is the difference between causes and problems in IELTS Task 2?
Causes explain why something happens; problems describe the harm it does. If the question asks for causes, body 1 explains the reasons, not the damage.
Can I write each problem and its solution in the same paragraph?
Yes. Problem 1 with its solution, then problem 2 with its solution, is a valid structure. Keep the 2 body paragraphs about the same length.
What are good topics for a problem solution essay?
Common areas include cities and traffic, the environment and waste, health and diet, crime, work, and technology. For practice, pick problems with a clear cause and a concrete fix, such as food waste or traffic.
Where to go next
See how to recognise the other common Task 2 essay types, including the advantages and disadvantages essay. The full problem-solution lesson, with more practice questions, is in the GoPrep Writing course.
To spread Task 2 practice over the time before your exam, tell the quiz your target score, exam date and hardest part of IELTS, and GoPrep will build a personal study plan around them.
GoPrep Team
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