What do IELTS examiners look for?

Examiners look for evidence of English, measured against a short list of published criteria. Everything else about you, from your views to your appearance, is outside the list.

Speaking: four criteria

IELTS.org lists the criteria Speaking examiners assess: Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy, and Pronunciation. IELTS.org states that each criterion is equally weighted and the final score is an average of the four. The examiner assesses your performance throughout the test, not answer by answer. The full definition of each criterion is on the page about the Speaking criteria, and the qualifications of the person doing the marking are on the page about who marks the test.

Writing: four criteria

IELTS.org gives the Writing criteria as Task Achievement for Task 1 and Task Response for Task 2, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. The first criterion changes with the task, so the four are the same in form for both. IELTS.org states that each task is assessed independently, that the criteria are weighted equally, and that the assessment of Task 2 carries more weight in marking than Task 1. The Writing band descriptors are published band by band on the Writing descriptors page.

Both papers are reported in whole or half bands, and both feed into the overall band, which is the average of the four section scores rounded to the nearest half band.

What they do not assess

None of these is a criterion in the published list.

• Your opinions. IDP says the examiner will be paying attention to how you say things, not what you say.
• Whether you agree with the examiner. IDP says you are not evaluated on whether your ideas match theirs.
• Accent as such. IDP says your accent is not part of the evaluation criteria and does not affect your score. The Pronunciation criterion is about being understood.
• Politeness. IDP lists this as a myth and says it is not part of the evaluation criteria.
• Test length. IDP says the evaluation criteria do not take account of how long your test lasts.
• Appearance and nerves. Neither appears in the criteria. Hesitation caused by nerves is a language effect, and it is rated under Fluency and Coherence.

What this means for how you prepare

Because the criteria are public, you can practise against them. Pick one criterion at a time, record an answer, and compare it with the band descriptors for the band you are aiming at. The weakest criterion is the one that holds the average down, and it is worth more of your time than the strongest.