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I hear this question more than any other, usually with a printout of an essay held up like evidence in court: ‘But there are no mistakes in it!’ And very often the student is right. The grammar is fine. The score is still 6.0.

Here is the thing nobody tells you. In IELTS Writing, grammar is only one of four criteria, and each one counts for a quarter of your score. The other three are Task Response (did you answer the actual question?), Coherence and Cohesion (does your essay hold together and move logically from one idea to the next?) and Lexical Resource (your range of vocabulary and how precisely you use it). Grammar, or Grammatical Range and Accuracy if we use its full name, is the fourth. You can write perfect sentences and still lose marks in the other three places.

Let me show you. Imagine the question says: Some people think university education should be free for everyone. Discuss both views and give your own opinion. Now read this paragraph.

Education is very important in the modern world. Many young people want to go to university because they want to get a good job. In my country, a lot of students study at university, and it is very popular. Universities offer many courses, such as medicine, law and engineering. Therefore, education is important for everyone.

Find me a grammar mistake. You won’t, because there isn’t one. But look at what the paragraph actually does. It never mentions money, so it doesn’t touch the question (Task Response). ‘Therefore’ joins two sentences that don’t follow from each other, so the linking word is decorative (= there for show, not for meaning) rather than doing a job (Coherence and Cohesion). And ‘important’ appears twice in five sentences, which tells the examiner your vocabulary is working from a very short list (Lexical Resource).

This is why a tutor who only corrects your grammar can’t move your score very far. They are polishing the one quarter of your essay that was already working.

So what do you do instead? Before you write a single sentence, underline the words in the question that you must answer, here ‘free’, ‘both views’ and ‘your own opinion’, and then check every paragraph against them. Ask yourself what each linking word is doing: ‘therefore’ promises a result and ‘however’ promises a contrast, and if the next sentence doesn’t deliver, cut the linker. And when you notice yourself repeating a word, stop and ask what you really mean. Important for whom? Important in what way?

None of this is glamorous (= exciting to look at), I know. It is, however, where the missing half band is usually hiding.

If you have a marked essay and you can’t see where the marks went, book a free 30-minute chat and bring it with you. We will find them together.