Short answer: if you booked the computer test, type every practice essay — handwriting builds the wrong skill. Practise full Task 1 and Task 2 answers under a 60-minute clock, with a visible word counter, so you train your writing and your typing speed at the same time.
⌨️ Open Typehush and practise Writing on a keyboard now →Handwriting speed and typing speed are completely different skills, and only the one you'll use on test day counts. A candidate who can handwrite a Band 7 essay in an untimed setting may only get two-thirds of the way through when typing against the clock. Practising on paper trains a muscle you won't use and hides the real bottleneck. Every practice essay from now to test day should be typed, on a full keyboard, so you're rehearsing the exact conditions of the exam.
Make your practice match the test: a 60-minute timer for both tasks, a visible word counter, and no spell-check or autocorrect (the exam has neither, so don't lean on them in practice). Type into a plain text box, not a word processor that fixes your spelling silently — that would mask exactly the errors you need to catch. The closer your practice environment is to the test screen, the fewer surprises you'll face on the day.
The efficient move is to practise in a way that trains both at once. Typing high-band model essays does this: you absorb structure, phrasing and grammar by producing them, while your fingers build speed and accuracy on real essay language. Then write your own timed answers on fresh questions. Alternating between typing models (to raise your level) and timed writing (to test it) improves your essays and your words-per-minute on the same schedule.
There's a compounding effect worth understanding. As you type more model essays, common phrases and sentence patterns become muscle memory, so your fingers produce them faster and with fewer errors. That means, over a few weeks, the same essay takes you less time to type and needs less correcting — freeing minutes for planning and checking that directly lift your band. In other words, typing practice doesn't just make you faster in the abstract; it specifically speeds up the kind of language IELTS asks you to produce, which is why it beats generic typing drills for this exam.
Measure your words per minute regularly — it's the most trainable variable you have and the one that most directly threatens your finish. Aim for at least 28–30 wpm so you can plan, write both answers, and check within 60 minutes; below about 20 wpm, finishing Task 2 becomes the real risk. Watching the number climb week to week is motivating and tells you when the finish-in-time worry is behind you.
Rehearse the small mechanics until they're automatic: glancing at the word counter at paragraph breaks, using cut-and-paste to reorder, and reserving the last minutes to proofread on screen (which is harder than on paper — errors hide). These habits cost nothing to build in practice and save real marks on the day. Practising them in advance means test day is execution, not first exposure.
Typing practice still needs the feedback loop: after each timed essay, self-mark against the four criteria, compare to a same-band model, and rewrite your weakest paragraph. Typing without reviewing just makes you a faster producer of the same mistakes. Combine the two — type for speed and format, review for quality — and both your band and your words-per-minute rise together, which is exactly what the computer-delivered Writing test demands.
⏱ Test your typing speed — can you finish Task 2 in 40 minutes? →Type them, if you booked the computer test. Handwriting and typing are different skills, and only the one you will use on test day counts toward your score.
Use a 60-minute timer for both tasks, a visible word counter, and a plain text box with no spell-check or autocorrect, since the exam has neither.
Type high-band model essays to absorb structure and phrasing while building speed, then write your own timed answers on fresh questions.
At least 28–30 words per minute, so you can plan, write both tasks, and check within 60 minutes. Below about 20 wpm, finishing Task 2 is the main risk.
Typehush — practise typing high-band IELTS model essays for the computer-based Writing test. Start practising · Model-essay library · Computer writing tips · Type faster