Cambridge IELTS 16 Academic Writing Test 2

• Task 1: describe the chart/graph/table in your own words.
• Task 2: write an argumentative essay responding to the prompt.
• On submit, AI will score you on all 4 IELTS criteria with feedback.

Cambridge IELTS 16 Academic Writing Test 2 opens with a Task 1 process diagram and closes with a Task 2 two-part question essay, so it stress-tests both data description and discursive argument in a single hour. Task 1 asks you to summarise the manufacturing process for making sugar from sugar cane. Task 2 then turns to a discursive prompt: In their advertising, businesses nowadays usually emphasise that their products are new in some way.

For a process, group the stages into two clear phases — typically input/preparation versus transformation/output — and lead the body with the phase that contains the most steps. Use the passive voice consistently and chain stages with sequencers like 'subsequently', 'once' and 'at this point' rather than counting 'firstly, secondly, thirdly'. Answer the two questions in order with one body paragraph each. The introduction should paraphrase both questions and signal the structure; the conclusion should answer both, not merely summarise the prompt.

Hold yourself to a hard twenty-minute Task 1 cap: planning two minutes, drafting fifteen, editing three. Move to Task 2 even if Task 1 feels unfinished, because the two-part question essay carries double the weight. Reserve the last six minutes for a single read-through across both answers — almost every band-7 candidate fixes at least two grammar slips during that final pass.

New to this skill? Read the Writing question types guide for tactics, scoring rules, and frequency analysis across Cambridge 10–20. Or browse all Writing practice tests.

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