Short answer: Band 7 is not band 6 with rarer words. On each of the four criteria the descriptors ask for something specific: a position that is clear from the first paragraph to the last and ideas that are extended rather than listed (Task Response); paragraphs with one central topic, linked by meaning rather than by "firstly" and "moreover" (Coherence and Cohesion); words chosen for precision, with their usual partners (Lexical Resource); and, above all, sentences that contain no error at all, frequently, rather than long sentences that contain one (Grammatical Range and Accuracy). Below: the two bands side by side on each criterion, four paragraphs written at band 6 and rewritten at band 7 with what changed, the error-free sentence rule, and the five changes that move a band 6 writer up in a month.
Most candidates who ask "how do I get band 7" are already at band 6, and most of what they are told to do (learn academic vocabulary, write longer sentences, add more linking words) moves them sideways. The distance between 6 and 7 is described precisely in the public band descriptors, and it is a distance of control, not of decoration: the band 7 writer does fewer things wrong, keeps one position, keeps one topic per paragraph, and chooses each word for what it means. This page puts the two bands next to each other, criterion by criterion, then shows the difference on four paragraphs written twice.
The two bands side by side
The table paraphrases the public descriptors for Task 2 in plain words. The official text is longer; the full band-by-band version, from 5 to 8, is in IELTS Band Descriptors Explained: Writing, Speaking, 5 to 8. Here only the two bands that matter for the question, and only what separates them.
| Criterion | Band 6 looks like | Band 7 looks like | The difference in one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Task Response | All parts of the question are addressed, but unevenly. There is a position, but it may be unclear in places or only stated in the conclusion. Main ideas are relevant but thin: stated, not developed. | All parts of the question are addressed. The position is clear from the introduction to the conclusion. Each main idea is extended with explanation and support, though some may still be too general. | A position held throughout, and ideas that are developed rather than listed. |
| Coherence and Cohesion | The essay has an overall progression. Linking words are used, but mechanically, and sometimes wrongly. References ("this", "it", "they") are not always clear. Paragraphing exists but is not always logical. | Information is organised logically and the essay moves forward. Linking devices are varied and mostly right, with some over-use or under-use. Every paragraph has one clear central topic. | One topic per paragraph, and links that carry meaning instead of decorating. |
| Lexical Resource | Enough vocabulary for the task. Attempts at less common words, with some wrong choices. Spelling and word-formation errors that do not block understanding. | Enough vocabulary to be flexible and precise. Less common words and collocations are used, with an awareness of style, and with only occasional wrong choices or spellings. | Precision and collocation, not rarity: the right word with its usual partner. |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | A mix of simple and complex sentences. Errors in grammar and punctuation are present, but rarely make the sentence hard to understand. | A variety of complex structures. Frequent error-free sentences. Good control of grammar and punctuation, with a few errors remaining. | Sentences with no error at all, often, not sentences with one small error each. |
Read the third column once more and notice that none of it says "longer", "more academic" or "more linking words". Band 7 is a description of control. A writer at band 6 who removes half the errors, decides the position before writing and splits the paragraph that had two ideas moves up without learning a single new word.
Four paragraphs, written twice
Each pair below takes the same idea and writes it first at band 6, then at band 7, on a different question each time so that the change is visible on one criterion at a time. The band 6 versions are not bad English; they are the English of a candidate who can communicate and is not yet in control. Nothing is added to the argument between the two versions.
Task Response: a position held, an idea extended
Question: "Some people think that children should learn a musical instrument at school. To what extent do you agree or disagree?" One body paragraph, on the same reason.
There are many advantages of learning a musical instrument. Firstly, music is good for the brain. Secondly, children can make friends in the school band. Thirdly, it is a good hobby for the future. However, some children are not interested in music and it can be expensive. So there are advantages and disadvantages, and it depends on the child.
The strongest reason for teaching an instrument is what it does for concentration. Learning to play requires a child to practise the same short passage until it is right, and this habit of patient repetition transfers to other subjects: a pupil who has spent a term learning a piece is used to the idea that difficulty is normal and temporary. In my experience, the children who kept up an instrument were rarely the ones who gave up on mathematics at the first hard chapter. This is why I believe the time spent on music in school is not taken from the academic subjects but invested in them.
What changed. The band 6 paragraph lists three reasons in one sentence each, adds two objections, and ends without a position ("it depends"), which is the "position unclear" wording of the descriptor. The band 7 paragraph takes one reason, explains the mechanism (repetition, difficulty as normal), supports it with an example, and states the position in the last sentence. Same subject, one idea instead of five, and a reader who knows what the writer thinks.
Coherence and Cohesion: one topic, links that mean something
Question: "In many cities, small local shops are closing because people prefer to shop online. Is this a positive or negative development?" One body paragraph on the effect on the neighbourhood.
On the one hand, online shopping is very convenient. Moreover, it is cheaper. On the other hand, local shops are important for the community. For example, old people can talk to the shopkeeper. In addition, when shops close the street becomes empty and unsafe. Furthermore, local shops create jobs. Therefore, this development has negative effects on the neighbourhood.
The clearest loss is to the street itself. A row of small shops keeps a neighbourhood occupied during the day: people pass, stop, talk to the shopkeeper, and the presence of those people is what makes the street feel safe after dark. When the shops close, that daytime traffic disappears with them, and the empty units that replace them tend to stay empty, because a street that has lost its footfall is not one a new business chooses. The convenience of ordering from home is real, but it is enjoyed indoors, whereas its cost is paid by everyone who still walks down the street.
What changed. The band 6 paragraph opens with "on the one hand" and "moreover" on a side it is not arguing, then piles up "on the other hand", "for example", "in addition", "furthermore", "therefore": seven connectors for seven sentences, and three topics (convenience, community, jobs) in one paragraph. The band 7 paragraph has one topic, the street, announced in the first sentence and held to the last; the sentences link through their content ("that daytime traffic", "the empty units that replace them", "its cost") and through two connectors that do real work, "when" and "whereas". The reader is carried forward instead of being told where each sentence stands.
Lexical Resource: precision and collocation
Question: "Fast food is becoming the main diet of many young people. What are the causes, and what can be done?" One body paragraph on causes.
There are several reasons why young people eat a lot of fast food. First, it is very cheap and you can get it everywhere. Second, young people are very busy and they do not have time to cook good food. Third, fast food companies make a lot of advertisements which are very attractive for young people. Also, many young people do not know how to cook because their parents did not teach them.
Fast food owes its place in young people's diets to price and availability before anything else: a meal that costs less than the ingredients of a home-cooked one, sold on every high street and delivered to the door, removes the decision. Time reinforces the habit, since students and young workers often eat between commitments rather than at a table. Advertising then does the rest, with campaigns aimed squarely at this age group. Underneath these lies a quieter cause, which is that a generation raised on ready meals has never acquired the basic cooking skills that would make the alternative practical.
What changed. "Very cheap", "everywhere", "good food", "a lot of advertisements", "very attractive" become "price and availability", "sold on every high street", "delivered to the door", "removes the decision", "campaigns aimed squarely at this age group", "acquired the basic cooking skills". None of these words is rare; each is exact, and each comes with its usual partner (aimed at, acquire skills, owe its place to). The band 6 version repeats "young people" four times and "very" three times; the band 7 version refers instead ("this age group", "a generation raised on"). That is what the descriptor means by flexibility and precision.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: error-free sentences
Question: "Many employees now work from home. Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?" One body paragraph on a disadvantage.
Working from home have some disadvantages for the employees. When people works alone at home, they can feel isolated and they are not motivated, because there is nobody to talk with and the manager cannot see if they are working good. Also the home is not a good place for work, there are many distractions like the television, the children and the housework, so the employees which work at home are less productive than in the office.
The main disadvantage of working from home is isolation. An employee who spends every day alone loses the informal contact that keeps people motivated: the short conversation before a meeting, the colleague who notices a problem before it grows. Managers, for their part, can no longer see how work is going and tend to judge it by what is delivered, which rewards the visible tasks over the important ones. The home also competes for attention in a way an office does not, since the television, the children and the housework are all in the next room.
What changed. The band 6 paragraph has an error in almost every sentence: "have" for "has", "people works", "working good", "the employees which", a comma splice, and articles missing or added. Each error is small and none blocks understanding, which is exactly the band 6 descriptor. The band 7 paragraph uses a relative clause ("an employee who"), a colon introducing examples, a parenthetical ("for their part"), a "which" clause that comments on the whole preceding clause, and a "since" clause, and every sentence is free of error. The structures are not more advanced than the ones the band 6 writer attempted; they are finished.
The error-free sentence rule
The phrase that separates the two bands on Grammatical Range and Accuracy is "frequent error-free sentences". It is worth reading literally. The examiner is not counting errors per essay; the examiner is noticing, sentence by sentence, whether a sentence contains no error at all. At band 6, sentences typically contain one small error each, an article, a plural, an agreement, a preposition, and the essay reads as communicative but never quite clean. At band 7, a good proportion of the sentences are clean, and the errors that remain are scattered rather than everywhere.
Two consequences follow. First, a shorter correct sentence is worth more than a longer sentence with one mistake, so the habit of stretching every sentence with a relative clause and a participle works against you if you cannot close the sentence without error. Second, proofreading pays at this level more than at any other: two minutes spent at the end checking every verb for agreement, every countable noun for its article and every "which" for its antecedent can turn a paragraph of sentences with one error each into a paragraph of error-free sentences, with no change of content. The descriptors do not give a number of mistakes allowed, and any number you are quoted is someone's guess.
The five changes that pay most in a month
- Decide the position before writing, and write it in the introduction. One sentence, in the first paragraph, that says what you think, then a check at the end that the conclusion says the same thing. This alone removes the "position unclear" wording from Task Response.
- One idea per body paragraph, extended. If a paragraph has a second topic sentence, cut it or move it. Extend the idea that stays with a mechanism (why it is true) and one specific example. Three thin ideas score band 6; one developed idea scores band 7.
- Replace half the connectors with references. Keep the connectors that mark a real turn ("however", "whereas", "as a result") and replace the ones that decorate ("moreover", "furthermore", "in addition") with references to what came before ("this habit", "such a policy", "that traffic"). The paragraph will read as one argument instead of a list.
- Learn words in pairs. Not "acquire" but "acquire a skill"; not "aimed" but "aimed at"; not "pressing" but "a pressing issue". Ten collocations you can use without error are worth more than fifty single words you half know, because the descriptor rewards collocation and penalises the wrong partner.
- Keep two minutes to proofread, with a list. Subject and verb agreement, articles before singular countable nouns, plurals after "many" and "several", "which" against "who", commas between two full sentences. The same four or five errors account for most of what keeps a band 6 writer at band 6, and they are the ones proofreading catches.
To see which criterion is holding you at 6, write one essay and read the band per criterion rather than the overall band. The Task 2 checker on this site returns one band on each of the four criteria with the sentences that cost marks; if three criteria say 7 and Grammatical Range and Accuracy says 6, the list above tells you which change to make first. The band is an estimate to guide practice, not an official result.
Quick answers
Is band 7 mostly grammar?
No. Grammatical Range and Accuracy is one of four criteria and each counts equally in the task band. A candidate with clean grammar and a position that appears only in the conclusion is held at 6 on Task Response; a candidate with perfect sentences and three topics in one paragraph is held at 6 on Coherence and Cohesion. Grammar is the criterion where the gap is easiest to describe, because "frequent error-free sentences" is concrete, but it is not the only one, and for many candidates it is not the weakest.
How many mistakes are allowed at band 7?
The descriptors do not give a number, and any number you are quoted is a guess. What the band 7 descriptor says is "frequent error-free sentences" and "good control", with "a few errors" remaining; band 6 says "some errors" that "rarely reduce communication". The difference is in the proportion of sentences that contain no error at all, not in a count per essay. A useful private test: read your essay sentence by sentence and mark each one clean or not; if most are clean, the grammar is at band 7 level.
Does length help?
Only up to the minimum. Task 2 requires at least 250 words, and an essay under that is penalised; above it, length is not scored. A longer essay gives more room for error, and the band 7 descriptors reward control and development, not volume. Between 260 and 300 words, with two body paragraphs each extending one idea, is enough for every band; a fourth body paragraph of generalities adds words and removes clarity.
Is the AI band official?
No. The band from the checker is an estimate produced by an AI model against the four official criteria, to guide your practice. Only a certified examiner gives an official IELTS band. This site is independent and not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to IELTS, the British Council, IDP or Cambridge English.
The short version: a position in the introduction and the same one in the conclusion; one idea per paragraph, explained and supported; references instead of decorative connectors; words with their partners; two minutes to proofread for the four or five errors that recur. Paste one essay and read the band per criterion, not the overall.