Short answer: a good Writing plan isn't "write more essays" — it's a weekly loop: two or three timed essays, each self-marked against the criteria, compared to a model, and followed by a targeted drill on your weakest area. Four to eight weeks of that reliably moves a band.
✍️ Open Typehush and start week one of your plan →Start by writing one timed essay under exam conditions and self-marking it on all four criteria. This tells you your baseline and — more importantly — your weakest criterion, which is where your plan should concentrate. Because your band is an average, lifting your lowest score moves it most. A plan that spreads effort evenly across strengths and weaknesses wastes time; a plan aimed at your specific gap doesn't. Everything below assumes you've found that gap first.
Between essays, do short 10-minute drills: read a question and write only the introduction and a two-line plan. Planning is a skill you can isolate cheaply.
| Week | Focus |
|---|---|
| 1 | Structure — the 4-paragraph shape, introductions, conclusions |
| 2 | Development — one idea per paragraph, examples, your weak criterion |
| 3 | Language — collocations, accuracy, your error log |
| 4 | Full timed practice — both tasks under 60 minutes, exam conditions |
Adjust the emphasis toward whichever criterion your diagnosis flagged — this arc is a default, not a rule.
Match the drill to the gap. Weak Task Response? Practise dissecting questions and planning developed ideas, not full essays. Weak Coherence? Drill topic sentences and paragraph plans. Weak Lexical Resource? Build a collocation bank from model essays and reuse it. Weak Grammar? Work your error log and rewrite error-ridden sentences correctly. Isolating the skill is far more efficient than hoping full essays fix a specific weakness by accident.
The logic is the same as sport or music: you don't only ever play full matches or whole pieces — you drill the specific move that's letting you down. A full timed essay tests everything at once, which is useful for measurement but slow for improvement, because any single weakness only gets a few minutes of attention buried inside a much larger task. A focused 15-minute drill on, say, writing developed examples gives that one skill your whole attention, so it improves far faster. Alternate the two: drills to build the weak skill, full essays to check it's transferring.
If you're sitting the computer test, bake typing into the plan: type every essay, practise with a visible word counter, and track your words per minute weekly. Slow typing can undo a strong essay by leaving Task 2 unfinished, so treat speed as a plan item, not an afterthought. Aim to reach at least 28–30 wpm well before test day. Rehearsing in the exact format also removes surprises, so the exam is execution rather than first exposure.
Consistency beats intensity. Three focused hours a week for a month outperforms one exhausting cram. The plan works because the loop compounds — each essay's lesson feeds the next — so protect the routine over any single heroic session. Typing high-band model essays is the efficient backbone: you absorb structure, phrasing and grammar by producing them, build typing speed for the computer test, and always have a model on hand to compare your own work against. Keep the loop running and the band follows.
Type all 156 Cambridge Band 6–8 model essays with live word count →Around a weekly loop: two or three timed essays, self-marked against the criteria, compared to a model, with the weakest paragraph rewritten and one targeted drill on your weakest area.
Often four to eight weeks for half a band, provided you review every essay. Unreviewed volume can take far longer with little progress.
Your weakest criterion, found by self-marking a diagnostic essay. Because your band is an average, lifting your lowest score moves it the most.
Yes, if you are sitting the computer test. Type every essay, practise with a word counter, and track your words per minute, aiming for at least 28–30 wpm before test day.
Typehush — practise typing high-band IELTS model essays for the computer-based Writing test. Start practising · Model-essay library · Practise at home · How to improve