Writing practice test
The one-minute photo description, the five-minute open prompt, and the typing tasks that feed Writing.
- 14 minutes, 3 task types — not a full hour
- Moves Writing, Literacy, Production on your report
- A real adaptive engine — difficulty moves with your answers
This section serves only the task types that feed your Writing subscore, at difficulty that adapts to how you answer — the same engine that runs a full mock, pointed at one skill.
Because Writing also feeds Literacy and Production, work here moves three of the eight numbers on your report.
Three writing tests, no shared questions
Each one draws from its own slice of the bank, so sitting all three measures you three times rather than measuring what you remember.
Writing Test 1
The first slice of the writing bank, running the full difficulty range so it finds your level wherever it is.
Take test 1Writing Test 2
A separate set. Nothing here appears in test 1 or test 3, so a second sitting is a fresh measurement rather than a memory test.
Take test 2Writing Test 3
The third disjoint slice, same difficulty range and same scoring, so all three writing scores are directly comparable.
Take test 314 minutes each. Free for a limited time.
What is in the writing section
Write About the Photo
An image appears and you write one or more sentences describing it.
How it is scored → 5 minutesWriting Sample
An extended written response to an open prompt. It is sent to institutions alongside your score.
How it is scored → 3 minutesRead & Complete
A short passage appears with roughly every second word cut in half. You type the missing letters to restore each damaged word.
How it is scored →What happens when you start the writing test
A short equipment check
A quick check that the page and timers are behaving. Nothing is recorded on this section.
The engine starts near the middle and moves
Your first item sits around the centre of the scale. From there difficulty tracks your answers — get one right and the next is harder. It is the same item-response engine that runs a full mock, pointed at Writing alone.
3 task types, 14 minutes
Each task carries its own timer, exactly as it does in the real test. Timers do not pause and there is no going back to a submitted answer.
A score on the same scale
You get a Writing estimate on the 10–160 scale with a confidence range, not a percentage. Because it is one skill, there is no overall score — that needs all four.
Feedback where a rubric applies
Every written and spoken response comes back with what worked and the one thing to change, graded by model against a rubric.
What writing is really costing you
Writing is the most commonly neglected of the four, and therefore frequently the largest easy gain on a report. It gets fewer items than reading and almost no practice outside a classroom, so a candidate whose Reading sits at 120 and whose Writing sits at 100 is very common — and that twenty-point gap is costing five points of overall score.
Find your pattern, then fix that
Four failure patterns cover most of what goes wrong here. Read down the left column until one describes you — the fix is beside it, and it is usually not the fix people assume.
| If this sounds like you | What to actually do |
|---|---|
| You write one short sentence and stop | There is not enough language there to assess. Two or three complete sentences with one subordinate clause is the target on the short tasks. |
| You start an ambitious sentence and the timer cuts you off | Unfinished is the worst available outcome — worse than something simpler that closed. Decide your scope before you start typing. |
| The same errors keep coming back | Almost everyone has four or five recurring mistakes — articles, prepositions, agreement, tense — that account for most lost accuracy. An error log names them; naming them fixes them. |
| Your grammar is fine but the score is not | Then it is relevance or development. Relevance gates the score outright, and a second paragraph that repeats the first rather than extending it caps your organisation mark. |
Where writing shows up
One skill, three numbers. This is why a single weak section costs more than people expect.
Writing
Measured directly by every task in this section.
Literacy
An integrated subscore built partly from Writing, so it moves when this does.
Production
An integrated subscore built partly from Writing, so it moves when this does.
Start a practice test
An hour under real conditions, all eight subscores, and feedback on every written and spoken answer.
Take a test