IELTS grammar: what Grammatical Range and Accuracy asks for

Many candidates treat grammar as a rulebook: learn the structures, then show them off. IELTS does not mark it that way. Grammatical Range and Accuracy is a judgement about the sentences you actually produce, and it has two halves that pull in different directions. This guide explains what the criterion looks at in Speaking and in Writing, what the middle and upper bands ask for, and where each grammar topic gets its own page. For the shape of the whole Writing test, see the guide to the Writing format for Task 1 and Task 2.

What the criterion looks at

IELTS.org’s scoring page says the four Writing criteria are weighted equally and that a task’s score is the average of the four. The Speaking criteria are weighted equally too. In both skills, Grammatical Range and Accuracy is one of the four, and it is never a separate grammar test. It is read off the sentences in your answers.

In Speaking, IELTS.org’s key assessment criteria describe range through things a listener can hear: how long your sentences run, whether you tuck clauses inside other clauses, and how complex your verb phrases are, including perfect and continuous forms, modal verbs and the passive. This site’s Speaking band descriptors explorer turns each band into plain words.

In Writing, the public band descriptors cover the same ground, and they also mention punctuation. A comma in the wrong place counts here, because a written sentence is judged on its punctuation as well as its words. The Writing band descriptors explorer shows the same bands for the written tasks.

Task 2 carries more weight than Task 1 in the Writing score, according to the same scoring page. So a grammar habit that spoils every sentence of an essay costs more than the same habit in a chart description.

Range and accuracy pull against each other

The two halves compete for your attention. A longer, more varied sentence gives you more places to go wrong. A candidate who writes only short, safe sentences keeps the accuracy but gives the marker little range to reward. A candidate who attempts something ambitious in every sentence collects range and loses accuracy.

The existing answer on whether grammar is important in IELTS Speaking frames it the same way, and the descriptors support it: the upper bands need both at once. This is why the advice “use complex grammar” is incomplete. A complex sentence you cannot finish correctly damages both halves in one move.

What bands 5 to 8 ask for

These are this site’s paraphrases of the public descriptors, in its own words. They describe a pattern, not a count.

Read down the accuracy column and you can see the common blocker. The same small slip, such as a missing article, a plural or a verb ending, repeated in sentence after sentence, keeps a candidate at the lower band even when the structures are good. The explorers list this repetition as a trap at several bands.

Read down the range column and you see the other one. A single rehearsed complex opener per paragraph, always the same shape, shows one structure, not a range. The explorers warn about that too. For one band step worked through in full, the Writing band 6 to 7 guide shows how the four criteria move together.

Range is not a list to show off

Because the descriptors talk about structures, many candidates collect them: a conditional, an inversion, a participle clause, all prepared in advance. The result is often a script that sounds the same in every paragraph, with the showpiece in the introduction and the conclusion and plain sentences in between. The band 7 explorer cell lists “saved for the introduction and the conclusion” as a trap, and the band 8 cell warns about long structures used for display where a short sentence was the right choice.

IELTS publishes no list of structures to use. It publishes no count of errors per band and no promise that a particular structure earns a particular band. So a structure is never worth using for its own sake. It is worth using when it does a job the simple version cannot: contrasting two ideas, qualifying a claim, giving a reason, attaching a detail to a noun. Choose the structure for the job, then check that you can finish it.

Where each topic fits

Each of these structures has a page of its own, written to be read in any order.

• Relative clauses attach detail to a noun with “which”, “who”, “that”, “whose” or “where”. They let you describe a feature in Task 1, qualify a claim in Task 2 and add detail in Part 2 without starting a new sentence.
• Complex sentences join a main clause to a subordinate one for contrast, cause, condition, time or concession. They are where the “Although…, but…” error lives, and where length and complexity get confused.
• The passive voice suits Task 1 processes and formal Task 2 sentences, and it hurts when the agent is vague or the passives stack up.
• Tenses in Writing covers how the dates on a visual decide the tense in Task 1, and which tense fits a general claim in Task 2.
• Tense errors in Speaking are covered in the post on grammar mistakes examiners hear, so they are not repeated here.

Grammar also touches the other criteria. A linker with the wrong grammar adds an error while trying to help cohesion, which the guide to linking words and coherence explains, and the guide to common Writing mistakes covers faults outside this criterion.

How to work on it

Grammar improves fastest when you work from your own errors, not from a syllabus. A routine that fits any week:

1. Write or record one answer. Mark every sentence that has an error, and mark every sentence that is correct.
2. Tally the errors by kind: article, agreement, tense, preposition, punctuation. One kind usually dominates.
3. Pick that one kind and write ten new sentences that use it correctly, then use it again in a fresh answer within two days.
4. Look at your range separately. Count how many sentences start with the subject and a single verb. If most do, add one structure from the topic pages above, in a place where the idea needs it.

The essay checker on this site reads the shape of a Task 2 essay in your browser. It is not a band score and cannot judge your grammar, so use it for structure and read the sentences yourself. For Speaking, the mock test gives you a recording to tally from.

A marker’s reasons are what make the tally easier. IELTS Mentor AI returns a Grammatical Range and Accuracy band for a Speaking or Writing answer, with what worked and how to improve. That is AI marking, not an examiner’s score, but a named pattern is easier to fix than a vague sense that your grammar is weak.