IELTS Writing time management: split 60 minutes and finish both tasks

IELTS Writing gives you 60 minutes for two tasks, and both must be completed. IELTS advises no more than 20 minutes on Task 1 (at least 150 words) and no more than 40 on Task 2 (at least 250 words), because Task 2 counts twice as much. There is no official rule about which task you start with.

In the first full Writing mock of 3,417 learners on GoPrep, 4 in 10 left at least one task under its word minimum. Across the 603 mocks where only Task 2 fell short, the average Writing band was 5.0; across the 166 where only Task 1 did, 6.0.

Good IELTS Writing time management comes down to two fixed checkpoints, at minute 20 and minute 40, so a slow start on one task can't take the other down with it.

The Task 2 sentence goes on: "if you write a very long answer you may not have time for checking and correcting at the end, and some ideas may not be directly relevant to the question." The General Training page has the same limits and warnings. So is writing more than 250 words penalised? No. The risk is what extra words cost in time and focus.

Each learner's first scored full mock on GoPrep, counted when it fell in this period. Word counts are automatic (words split by spaces). Bands rounded as in IELTS. The overall mock band weights Task 2 twice, like the real test.

The 5.0 against 6.0 fits the official weighting, but length isn't the only difference: where only Task 2 fell short, Task 1 also scored lower than in complete mocks. When Task 1 fell short, Task 2 was also under 250 in 581 of 747 mocks (78%).

Is it the shared hour? For 1,388 learners with both a first full mock and a first separate 40-minute Task 2 essay: 58% reached 250 words in both, 16% in neither, 15% missed only in the mock and 11% only in the separate essay. The median learner's two essays were 1 word apart. The mock usually came first (9 in 10), so this doesn't isolate the effect of the hour.

Does writing more help?

Up to a point. In the same first mocks, Task 2 essays of 300 to 399 words scored higher on average than shorter ones, and the 400+ group scored lower again.

Our computer-delivered IELTS guide uses a different base: all 8,071 separate typed Task 2 essays, averaging 6.0 at 250 to 299 words and 6.5 from 300 up. Both show that stronger writers write more. Neither shows that adding words raises a score, and the 400+ group is small. A practical target is the one in our Task 2 guide: about 260 to 290 words, with time left to check.

Test-takers' exam reports keep mentioning an unfinished Task 1 after Task 2, and multi-chart Task 1s that took far longer than planned. Choose by your own pattern:

• Your Task 1 often runs past 20 minutes: start with Task 2, and move on at minute 40.
• You panic while Task 2 isn't done: start with Task 2.
• Neither is true: start with Task 1, and move on at minute 20.

Then keep the same order in every practice test, so your checkpoints become habits.

The two tasks need different speeds. To reach the minimums you need about 10 words a minute in Task 1 (150 in 15 minutes) and about 8 in Task 2 (250 in 30). The table's targets (about 165 and 270) need about 11 and 9. Don't cut the planning minutes: they decide Task Response. For each block in detail, see the 20-minute line graph plan and the 40-minute Task 2 plan.

A rescue essay, written for this guide

Some people believe that all young people should do a year of community work before university. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

With the full 40 minutes, each body paragraph could carry a second example, followed by a 5-minute check. Starting at minute 40, we kept one example per paragraph, a two-sentence introduction, a one-sentence conclusion and one position throughout:

Some people argue that every school leaver should spend a year doing community work before university. I partly agree: this work is valuable, but it should be encouraged rather than required.

The main benefit is experience that classrooms cannot give. A year in a hospital, a school or a charity teaches young people to work with adults and to take responsibility for others. For example, a student who helps in a care home learns patience and teamwork, and these skills are useful in any career.

However, making this year compulsory would be unfair. Some students need to start earning or studying at once, and a lost year would cost them money and time. In addition, volunteers who are forced to take part are unlikely to work well, so the people they help would also lose out.

In short, community work is worth doing, but a year of it should be a choice, not a rule.

155 words: under the minimum, so we don't give it a band. But it answers the question, keeps one position and ends, which an essay that stops mid-paragraph doesn't.

Task 1 can run slower than an essay because you check figures as you go, so repeat the test on a chart if your Task 1 feels slow. If your count is low, note what stopped you: finding ideas, building sentences, searching for words, slow typing, or deleting and retyping. Typing drills only fix slow typing.

Then:

1. Session 2, fix the leak. Repeat only the stage that ran over, with its own timer, until you finish it on time twice.
2. Session 3, the rescue. Do Task 1, then start Task 2 on purpose at minute 40 and use the rescue plan.

After each session, check: did both tasks reach the minimum, and did Task 2 get its conclusion? If you practise on GoPrep, the full Writing mock runs one 60-minute timer for both tasks and shows a live word count, so you can run the same checkpoints. To fit drills like this into the weeks before your exam, see an IELTS study plan with weekly checkpoints.