Stuck at Band 6.5?
Every retake costs you ~$250 and another 3 months. One in three IELTS test-takers is stuck exactly where you are — blocked by their Writing score from the visa, job or university place they need.
Free essay analyser · personalised roadmap · works for Academic & General Training
Backed by the Band 7 Guarantee — reach Band 7 or keep full access free until you do.
The most valuable half-band in IELTS
Writing is the world's lowest-scoring IELTS skill — the global average is Band 6.0. Being stuck isn't about your English.
Why half a band changes everything
Band 7.0 is the line for the things that change your life. Here's what it gates — and what being stuck at 6.5 really costs.
| Your goal | Band you need | What Band 7 is worth | If you're stuck at 6.5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canada PR — Express Entry | 7.0 Writing (CLB 9) | ~25–50 CRS points | Writing 6.5 is only CLB 8 — short of the top CRS points that win invitations. |
| UK Nursing — NMC | 7.0 (Writing 6.5 accepted*) | Your entire registration | One slip below 7.0 in any other skill blocks your registration entirely. |
| Australia PR — points test | 7.0 in every skill | 10–20 PR points | 6.5 scores you 0 English points; 7.0 is worth 10, and 8.0 is worth 20. |
| UK Postgraduate | 6.5 – 7.0 Writing | Your conditional offer | Conditional offers hinge on a per-skill minimum — Writing is the usual shortfall. |
*The NMC accepts Writing 6.5 if your other three skills are 7.0 and your overall is 7.0. Always verify current rules with the official body. See the full requirements tool.
Three free tools to find your gap
Start here. Each one is genuinely useful on its own — no signup wall.
Free Essay Analyser
Paste a Task 2 essay and get a band for each of the four criteria — with the one fix that gains +0.5. No competitor does this at this price.
Analyse my essay →60 secBand Diagnostic
Answer 5 questions and get a personalised Band 7 roadmap tailored to your goal, your gap and your deadline.
Find my roadmap →LookupBand Requirements
What band do you actually need for your visa, registration or course? Look it up by country and purpose — and see if you're meeting it.
Check my requirement →The Band 7 Wall of Fame
Real outcomes from people who were stuck exactly where you are.
“I'd convinced myself my Writing just wasn't good enough. The criterion breakdown showed it was Task Response the whole time — I fixed it in two weeks and hit 7.5.”
“Three retakes, same 6.5, no idea why. The playbook named the exact problem and gave me a structure I could repeat. CLB 9 secured.”
“The 14-day plan was the difference. I stopped guessing and started drilling the one thing holding me back. GMC-ready at last.”
“$49 instead of another $250 retake and three more months of waiting. Best decision of my whole application.”
Illustrative examples — verified reviews are being collected.
See what the analyser catches
Here's the free analyser run on a real Band 6.5 Task 2 paragraph — the four-criterion read-out, the exact flaw it flags, the fix, and the Band 7 rewrite of the same paragraph. This is a demonstration of the tool on real writing, not a student testimonial.
Task 2 prompt · Opinion (Agree/Disagree)
Some people think that governments should spend money on public services rather than on the arts. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
I agree with this opinion because public services are very important for people. Public services like hospitals and schools are things that everyone needs and the government should give money to them first. The arts is also good but it is not as important as the public services, so the money should go to the hospitals and schools because they help people more and the arts can be paid by private companies instead.
Analyser read-out
What it flags
Lexical Resource is capping this paragraph at 6.0: "important", "people", "things" and "good" are repeated and stay general, and "the arts is" is a subject-verb agreement slip. Coherence is also weakened by leaning on "because" and "so" to bolt clauses together instead of using precise linkers.
The fix (+0.5 band)
Swap the vague, repeated words for topic-specific collocations ("essential infrastructure", "life-saving care", "publicly funded"), fix the agreement ("the arts are"), and break the run-on into two controlled sentences with a precise linker.
I largely agree that public funding should prioritise essential services over the arts. Provisions such as hospitals and schools deliver life-saving care and basic education that every citizen depends on, so they have a stronger claim on limited public budgets. The arts undeniably enrich society, but they can realistically attract private sponsorship and ticket revenue, whereas an underfunded health system has no comparable safety net.
Free · 3 analyses per day · criterion-level examiner feedback on your own writing.
Ready to fix your Writing score?
The examiner's rubric, decoded into a 14-day plan. One IELTS retake costs ~$250 and another 3 months. The playbook costs $49 and takes 14 days.
Instant access · Works for Academic & General Training · Phase 1 is free
Why IELTS Edge?
Built for the 6.5 → 7.0 gap
Not a generic IELTS course. Every page is engineered around the single half-band that blocks visas, jobs and registrations.
Instant criterion-level feedback
Our analyser scores your essay on Task Response, Coherence, Lexis and Grammar separately — so you fix the exact thing capping you.
Examiner logic, decoded
We reverse-engineer what the rubric rewards into repeatable structures and templates — not vague 'use better vocabulary' tips.