Computer-Based IELTS Writing Practice: Typing, Word Count and a 60-Minute Rehearsal
On IELTS on computer you type both answers, watch a live word count in the corner and get no spell check. This guide turns those screen facts into a 20/40 rehearsal with word-count checkpoints, a three-minute typed proofreading pass, and a way to use an ielts writing practice test with answers properly.
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IELTS Writing is marked against four published criteria, and not one of them is handwriting. On IELTS on computer you type both answers on screen, which means the sentence that arrives fastest is the one you keep, and the slip your fingers make is the one the examiner reads. That is a different practice problem from asking what the band descriptors mean, and it is the problem this guide solves.
Everything here about the test interface comes from the official IELTS and IELTS-partner pages listed at the end, all read on 29 October 2026. The task itself has not changed: 60 minutes for two tasks, at least 150 words for Task 1 and at least 250 for Task 2, with Task 2 contributing twice as much as Task 1. What a computer changes is how you spend the minutes and what you can check while you spend them.
What the Computer Screen Gives You
On this version of the test the question sits on the left of the screen and your answer on the right, and you may start with either task. Answers are saved automatically, so no second of the hour is spent wondering whether your work was captured. A word count sits in the lower-left corner of the answer area, and the stopwatch at the top of the screen begins to flash in the last ten minutes and again in the last five.
- Typed delivery: you must type your answers on screen, and the note-taking tool you can use while planning is never seen by the examiner.
- A live word count, so
at least 150 wordsbecomes a number you can read off the screen instead of a guess. - A timer built into the test, which flashes at ten and five minutes left instead of asking you to watch a phone you are not allowed to keep.
- Adjustable font size and background colour, plus highlighting and note-taking tools, so the screen can be made comfortable before the clock matters.
- No spell checker among the published tools, which means every typed slip is yours to find in the time you left yourself.
- The same content, question types, timings and scoring as the paper test, with Speaking still taken with an examiner.
Why Typing Habits Cost Marks
Candidates who prepared on paper usually lose marks to four typing habits rather than to grammar. Editing instead of drafting comes first: it is easy to rewrite the same sentence three times on screen and still be under 150 words when the first warning flashes. Near-miss spellings come second: doubled consonants, missing apostrophes in contractions, and endings that change the part of speech, none of which a checker will catch for you. Punctuation typed at speed comes third: commas where the sentence needs a full stop, and paragraphs that never break. Repetition comes fourth: because typed text is easy to move, whole clauses travel from the introduction into the conclusion.
The remedy is arithmetic rather than willpower. Measure your own typing rate in a timed burst, then fix the word-count checkpoints before you sit down.
The 20/40 Rehearsal With Two Checkpoints
The recommended split is 20 minutes for Task 1 and 40 for Task 2, because Task 2 counts for twice as much. Convert that split into two numbers you can read on screen: 150 words typed by minute 20, and 250 words typed by minute 55. The last five minutes belong to proofreading, not to new ideas.
| Checkpoint | What you should see | What to do if you are behind |
|---|---|---|
| Minute 20 | Task 1 finished, 150 or more words in the box | Stop Task 1 and start Task 2 |
| Minute 30 | Task 2 plan done and the first paragraph typed | Cut the plan to three points |
| Minute 45 | 200 or more words in Task 2 | Write the conclusion first, then fill the middle |
| Minute 55 | 250 or more words and a conclusion | Stop adding ideas and start proofreading |
| Minute 58 | Typed slips fixed | Check only the five patterns below |
The arithmetic behind those numbers is not demanding. 150 words in 20 minutes is about 8 words a minute while you plan and think; 250 words in 35 minutes is about 7. A comfortable typist clears both and still has time for a second read, and a slow typist discovers the problem in a drill instead of on the day. Type a familiar paragraph for one minute and count the words: halve that figure to allow for thinking, and you have a writing rate to plan against.
A Three-Minute Typed Proofreading Pass
From minute 55 the only job is to find typed slips, not to improve ideas. Read the answer once for these five patterns, in this order.
- Missing or doubled small words: articles, prepositions and plural endings.
She go to work by bus every day.needs the third-person ending before it can be marked as accurate. - Apostrophes in contractions and possessives:
dont,the exams difficulty, anditswhere you meantit is. - A comma carrying a sentence it cannot carry:
Car use rose sharply, bus use fell. - Word forms your fingers confuse:
economicalforeconomic, oradviseforadvice. - Paragraph breaks. A screen filled with one block of text hides the structure the examiner is looking for.
Then check that the answer still answers the question. Task 1 needs an overview sentence that selects the main features; Task 2 needs a position that holds from introduction to conclusion. A sentence you rewrite until it no longer responds to the prompt is not a correction, it is a second error.
Where a Practice Test With Answers Fits
An ielts writing practice test with answers is only a rehearsal if the conditions match the screen you will sit at. Sit one task with the timer visible, the answer typed, no spell checker and no phone beside you. Then mark the four criteria separately, Task achievement or Task response, Coherence and cohesion, Lexical resource, and Grammatical range and accuracy, and only after that compare your typed response with the official sample answers.
- Read the samples for structure rather than for phrases: which sentence carries the overview, and where the writer's position first appears.
- Name the missing feature in the wording of the descriptors, so the next rehearsal has one target instead of five.
- Keep the typed version you marked. Comparing a typed answer with a handwritten sample hides exactly the slips that typing produces.
The IELTS Writing band descriptors guide explains what changes between Band 6 and Band 7, which is the part most candidates find hardest to judge alone. If you want to know which error types a free IELTS writing checker can flag, read that page before deciding how much to trust one.
A Four-Week Rehearsal Schedule
Alternate long and short sessions so that typing speed, proofreading and both tasks all get time. None of it needs a partner, only a keyboard and a clock.
- Week 1: two 60-minute seated rehearsals and three one-minute typing bursts, to find your baseline rate.
- Week 2: two seated rehearsals, each followed by a three-minute proofreading pass on what you have just typed.
- Week 3: one full rehearsal and one single-task rehearsal, alternating Task 1 and Task 2.
- Week 4: three full rehearsals on separate days, starting at the same time of day as your test.
Keep speaking practice running beside the writing. The two skills are marked separately, but the habits overlap: carrying one idea through to a conclusion out loud, noticing a correction and continuing without starting over. HiBay's app offers AI conversation practice with feedback on pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, which keeps spoken feedback arriving between written rehearsals.
Rehearse the Medium, Not Only the Task
The 60 minutes do not change because you are typing, but what fills them does. Once the checkpoints are numbers you can read off the screen, a practice test stops being a test of nerve and becomes a rehearsal of the one skill the computer adds: producing enough accurate typed English inside a fixed window, then finding your own slips in the time that remains.
Sources, all read on 29 October 2026: the IELTS Academic Writing test format, IELTS on computer from the British Council, and IDP's How IELTS on computer works.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many words should I have typed by minute twenty?
At least 150 for Task 1, which is the published minimum, and you should be leaving Task 1 at that point rather than polishing it. If minute 20 arrives with fewer than 150 words in the box, start Task 2 anyway: a complete Task 2 is worth twice as much as Task 1, and an unfinished Task 1 costs less than a missing Task 2. The same logic sets the second checkpoint at 250 words by minute 55.
Does IELTS on computer give you a spell checker for Writing?
The published tool lists for IELTS on computer describe a timer, note-taking, highlighting, adjustable font size and colours, and a word count. A spell checker is not among them, so plan as though every spelling mistake will reach the examiner. That is why the proofreading pass above is limited to five patterns you can scan for in three minutes rather than a general tidy-up, and why the practice test you sit should also be typed with no spell checker switched on.