IELTS Task 2 Grammar: Fix the 7 Costly Errors in 5 Minutes
Quick answer: Keep the last five minutes of your 40 for a fixed-order check: subject-verb agreement, articles, plurals, tense, prepositions, fragments, and run-on sentences. Scan the essay once per error type instead of rereading it for meaning. Each pass looks for one thing, so it is faster and catches more than a general reread.↗ Share on X
Save the last five minutes of your 40 for a check that targets only the seven errors examiners count most, in a fixed order: subject-verb agreement, articles, plurals, tense, prepositions, sentence fragments, and run-on sentences. Do not reread the essay for meaning. Scan it once per error type, pencil in hand. This is faster than a general reread and it catches far more, because each pass is looking for one thing.
Why does grammar matter so much in Task 2?
IELTS Map Questions: A 5-Step Method to Stop Getting Lost →
IELTS Speaking: 9 Habits That Push Your Band Score Higher →
IELTS Speaking Part 2: The 4-Step Story Plan for Band 8 →Grammatical Range and Accuracy is one of the four scoring criteria, and it carries a quarter of your writing score. The band descriptors are blunt about errors. To reach Band 7 in this criterion, most of your sentences need to be error-free. At Band 6, errors are allowed as long as they rarely make a sentence hard to understand. A candidate with Band 7 ideas and Band 6 grammar gets dragged down.
The good news: the errors that cost the most are the same for almost every candidate, and they are small. Fixing them is a checking habit, not a new grammar course.
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What are the seven errors, and how do you spot each one fast?
| # | Error | Fast scan method | Example fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Subject-verb agreement | Find every verb. Point to its subject. Singular with singular? | "The number of cars are rising" → "is rising" |
| 2 | Articles (a, an, the) | Find every singular countable noun. Does it have a, an, the, or a word like "this" in front? | "Government should build hospital" → "The government should build hospitals" |
| 3 | Plurals | Find "many," "several," "a lot of," and numbers. Is the noun after them plural? | "many student" → "many students" |
| 4 | Tense | Read only the verbs of each paragraph. Do they stay in one tense unless there is a reason to change? | "Nowadays people worked from home" → "work" |
| 5 | Prepositions | Check the ten common pairs listed below. | "depend of" → "depend on" |
| 6 | Fragments | Find sentences starting with "Because," "Although," "Which," "Such as." Is there a main clause? | "Because it is cheap." → "Because it is cheap, more people buy it." |
| 7 | Run-ons | Find commas. Is there a full sentence on both sides with no joining word? | "It is cheap, people buy it" → "It is cheap, so people buy it." |
How do you do the check in five minutes?
IELTS Speaking Mistakes That Keep You Stuck Below Band 7 →
IELTS Speaking: Is Extra Prep Worth It? A Simple Breakdown →
IELTS Speaking Future Plans: Answers That Reach Band 7+ →Here is the exact order. Practice it with a timer at home until it becomes automatic.
1. Minute 1: subjects and verbs. Run your pen along the essay and tap every verb. Each tap, glance left to find the subject. Fix any mismatch. Common trap: "The number of ... is" (singular), "A number of ... are" (plural).
2. Minute 2: articles and plurals together. Tap every noun. Singular countable noun alone, with nothing in front? Add an article or make it plural. Noun after "many," "few," "various," "a range of"? Make sure it ends in -s.
3. Minute 3: tense. Read just the first verb of every sentence in one paragraph, then the next. Task 2 is mostly present simple. If you see a past verb, ask why. If there is no reason, change it.
4. Minute 4: prepositions and fragments. Scan for the ten pairs in the next section. Then look at any sentence starting with a linking word and confirm it has a main clause.
5. Minute 5: run-ons and the final line. Check every comma. If a complete sentence sits on each side, add "and," "but," "so," or make it two sentences. Finally, confirm your last sentence is complete and not cut off.
If you are running out of time, do minutes 1 and 2 only. Agreement and article errors are the ones that appear most often in the essays of candidates stuck at Band 6.
Which prepositions do candidates get wrong most?
Learn these ten as fixed pairs. Say them aloud until they sound right.
1. depend on (not "of")
2. interested in
3. responsible for
4. consist of
5. result in (a result) / result from (a cause)
6. an increase in (not "of")
7. the solution to
8. affected by
9. participate in
10. on the one hand / on the other hand (not "in")
Write the pairs on the inside cover of your notebook. Before every practice essay, read the list once. After the essay, use it in minute 4.
How do you stop making the errors in the first place?
Checking fixes the essay in front of you. Prevention fixes the next twenty essays. Keep an error log.
- After each practice essay, write every error you found in a table: the wrong form, the right form, the error type number (1 to 7).
- After five essays, count. Most people find that two types make up most of their mistakes.
- Spend fifteen minutes a day for a week on just those two types. For articles, read a paragraph from any news article and mark every a, an, and the. For agreement, write ten sentences with "the number of" and "a number of."
Your personal top two will shrink within two weeks. Then the five-minute check gets faster, because you know where to look.
Does fixing grammar hurt your word count or your ideas?
No, if you plan for it. The 40 minutes should look like this:
| Minutes | Task |
|---|---|
| 0 to 5 | Read the question twice. Write a four-line plan: position, reason 1, reason 2, conclusion. |
| 5 to 32 | Write. Aim for 260 to 290 words. Do not go back to fix anything while writing. |
| 32 to 35 | Count words roughly. Learn how many words fit on one line of your handwriting and multiply. |
| 35 to 40 | The seven-error check. |
Candidates who skip the plan write slower and leave no time to check. Candidates who fix as they write break their flow and finish short. Separate the three jobs: plan, write, check.
What if you find an error you cannot fix cleanly?
Cross it out with a single line and write the correction above. Examiners are used to this and it does not cost marks. Do not scribble, and do not rewrite the whole sentence unless it is unreadable. A clean single-line correction is the right way.
If a sentence is so tangled that you cannot see the fix, delete it. A missing sentence costs you nothing if your essay is still above 250 words. A broken sentence that the examiner cannot follow costs you in two criteria at once, grammar and coherence.
How do you practice the check at home?
1. Write one Task 2 essay under timed conditions, 40 minutes, no exceptions.
2. Put it away for an hour.
3. Come back and do only the five-minute check with a timer. Mark what you catch.
4. Then do a slow, full reread with no timer. Mark anything you missed in step 3.
5. Compare. The errors you only caught in step 4 are the ones your five-minute scan is not yet trained for. Add them to your log.
Three rounds of this and most candidates find the five-minute scan catches nearly everything the slow reread finds.
Does the check work for the computer-based test too?
Yes, and it is slightly easier. On the computer you can use the cursor instead of a pen to tap through verbs and nouns, and corrections are clean by default. Two differences to plan for:
- The word count is shown on screen, so minutes 32 to 35 shrink to a glance. Give that time to the check instead.
- It is tempting to fix errors while typing because it is easy. Resist. Typing and checking at the same time still slows you down and still breaks your argument. Write first, check at minute 35.
What is the next step today?
Take the last practice essay you wrote and run the seven passes on it with a timer set to five minutes. Write the errors you find in a three-column log: wrong form, right form, error number. That single sheet tells you which two error types to drill this week, and it is the only grammar homework you need before your next timed essay.
FAQ
How much of the IELTS writing score is grammar?
Grammatical Range and Accuracy is one of four equally weighted criteria, so it is a quarter of your writing score. For Band 7 in this criterion, most sentences need to be error-free.
Should I correct mistakes while I write or at the end?
At the end. Fixing while writing breaks your flow and leaves you short of 250 words. Plan for five minutes, write for about 27, count words, then check for the last five.
Do crossed-out corrections lose marks in IELTS writing?
No. A single clean line through the error with the correction written above is normal and does not cost marks. Avoid scribbling or rewriting whole sentences.