General Training
A Task 1 letter and a Task 2 essay, with a Band 9 model answer for each. Free, with no signup.
This is a complete IELTS General Training writing practice test. Task 1 is a letter of at least 150 words in about twenty minutes, and Task 2 is an essay of at least 250 words in about forty.
Write both under time before you look at anything else. There is a word counter and a clock on each task, and a Band 9 model answer hidden underneath. Read the model afterwards, never first: comparing your own writing with it teaches you something, and copying its shape into a different question does not.
Task 1 · 20 minutes · at least 150 words
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Dear Uncle John,
I am so pleased you are coming to stay! I am sorry I will not be there to greet you when you arrive, as I have a work commitment I cannot move. However, I have made arrangements so you can get into the house without any trouble.
I have left a spare key with my neighbour, David, who lives at number 21 — just two doors down from me. He is expecting you, so simply knock and introduce yourself and he will hand it straight over.
Once you have dropped off your bags, getting to my house from the station is simple. Take a taxi — the journey is no more than ten minutes. I would avoid the bus, as the route is indirect and unreliable.
I will be home by six o'clock at the latest. I thought we could go out for dinner — there is a wonderful Italian restaurant just around the corner that does excellent pasta. Let me know if you would prefer something else and we can decide when I am home.
Safe travels, Patrick
Read it after you have written your own, not before. Comparing your answer with a model is useful; copying its structure into a different question is not, and examiners recognise it.
Task 2 · 40 minutes · at least 250 words
Nothing you write here is sent anywhere or stored. Copy it out before you leave the page.
While some argue that every person who breaks the law should face imprisonment, this view is too rigid. Community service is a more appropriate response to minor offences, and this essay will argue that a justice system relying solely on custodial sentences is neither practical nor effective.
The case for imprisoning all offenders overlooks the realities of modern penal systems. In many countries, prisons are already overcrowded and costly to run, diverting funds from essential services such as healthcare and education. Applying custodial sentences to minor offenders — shoplifters, for instance — would intensify this burden without improving public safety. Dangerous offenders must, of course, be imprisoned; however, applying the same penalty to low-risk individuals serves little purpose beyond punishment for its own sake.
Community service, by contrast, turns a penalty into a contribution. When offenders renovate public spaces or support community facilities, they make a direct and visible contribution to the community they have harmed, which carries more meaning than time spent in a cell. This also keeps them in employment, preserving their ability to reintegrate and reducing reoffending far more effectively than a short prison term.
Those who support universal imprisonment often point to deterrence — the idea that consistent, severe sentencing discourages others from offending. However, many minor crimes, such as shoplifting or vandalism, are impulsive acts driven by immediate circumstances rather than calculated decisions, meaning the threat of imprisonment is unlikely to enter the offender's thinking at the moment of the crime.
In conclusion, a blanket policy of imprisonment is a blunt instrument. Matching the severity of the sentence to the nature of the crime produces better outcomes — for offenders, for communities, and for society as a whole.
Read it after you have written your own, not before. Comparing your answer with a model is useful; copying its structure into a different question is not, and examiners recognise it.
The honest limit of a free page
Reading and listening convert from a raw score, so this site can mark them for you. Writing cannot be marked that way. There is no answer key, because the assessment is a judgement against four criteria: task achievement, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, and grammatical range and accuracy.
Comparing your answer with the Band 9 model above will show you some of the gap. What it will not tell you is which of the four criteria is holding your band down, and that is almost always the thing worth fixing first.
IELTStestONLINE assesses your writing against those four criteria, instantly and as often as you like, using a system built by a former IELTS examiner and examiner trainer.
See what membership includesSixty minutes for both tasks. Spend about twenty minutes on the Task 1 letter and forty on the Task 2 essay, which is worth twice the marks.
At least 150 for Task 1 and at least 250 for Task 2. Writing under the minimum is penalised under Task Achievement, and there is no benefit in writing far over it.
No. Writing is judged against four criteria rather than checked against an answer key, so no free page can score it. That is what full membership on IELTStestONLINE is for.
No. Write your own answer under time, then read the model and compare. Reading it first turns a test into a copying exercise, and examiners recognise borrowed structures.
Yes. Task 2 is an essay of at least 250 words in both Academic and General Training. Only Task 1 differs, where General Training writes a letter.