Why your Writing score is stuck at 6.5
Almost nobody plateaus at 6.5 because of grammar. It's usually one of three structural habits — and all three are fixable in a fortnight.
If you've sat the test twice and both times Writing came back at 6.5 while your other three sections moved, the problem almost certainly isn't your English. It's what your essay is doing structurally. Examiners mark against four criteria, and a 6.5 usually means you're scoring 7s on lexical resource and grammar while task response and coherence quietly drag you down.
1. You answer the topic, not the question
A Task 2 prompt about remote work is not an invitation to write everything you know about remote work. If the question asks whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, every paragraph has to serve that comparison. The most common 6.5 essay is a well-written tour of the topic that never commits to a position.
Before writing a single sentence, underline the task verb — discuss, evaluate, to what extent do you agree — and write your one-sentence answer at the top of your rough notes. If a paragraph doesn't support that sentence, it doesn't belong.
2. Your paragraphs have no spine
Coherence isn't linking words. Sprinkling 'moreover' and 'furthermore' over disconnected ideas is one of the fastest ways to look like a 6. What examiners want is a visible logic: claim, reason, example, consequence.
- One controlling idea per paragraph, stated in the first sentence.
- One concrete example — a real situation, not a hypothetical 'some people'.
- One sentence that ties the example back to your position.
- No new idea in the last line of a paragraph.
3. You run out of time and the conclusion shows it
A rushed two-line conclusion signals to the examiner that you couldn't manage the task, which costs you under task response. Budget 40 minutes for Task 2 as five minutes planning, thirty writing, five checking — and treat the plan as non-negotiable. Students who plan finish faster, not slower.
The students who break 7 aren't writing fancier sentences. They're answering a narrower question more completely.
What to do this week
Take your last three essays and, for each one, write the question's demand in a single sentence, then check every paragraph against it. Most students find at least one paragraph per essay that was never answering anything. Cut those, and you free up the time your conclusion has been missing.