IELTS problem-solution essay: structure and traps

The problem-solution essay asks for two things and marks you on whether you deliver both. Name the problems, then propose solutions. Most candidates get the problems out fine and then run short on time, tools, or ideas, so the solutions arrive thin, vague, or worse, unconnected to the problems they just described. In the exam that reads as half a task answered, and Task Response holds it down however good the sentences are.

This is a guide to the "what problems does this cause and what can be done" essay: the two shapes it comes in, the one rule that separates it from every other Task 2 type, and where candidates leak marks without noticing. It sits under the full Task 2 guide; here we go deep on this one.

What a problem-solution prompt asks

Read the final instruction line, because the type lives there. Two wordings are common and they behave the same way.

The first names a situation and asks "what problems does this cause, and what solutions can you suggest?" The second asks "why is this happening, and what can be done about it?" That second one is really a cause-and-solution essay, but you plan and structure it identically: one half diagnoses, the other half fixes. Whatever the wording, you have been handed two tasks, not one, and both carry equal weight.

That last point is where the type quietly fails people. The official Task Response descriptor asks you to address all parts of the task. Spend three-quarters of your essay on problems and tack on one rushed solution, and you have left a main part underdeveloped, so Task Response caps at 6 or below no matter how sharp the problem analysis was. Both halves get a real paragraph. This is the same "all parts" logic that governs every Task 2 type, and it bites hardest here because the essay splits so cleanly in two.

One thing this type does not ask for: an opinion. Unlike the opinion essay or the outweigh version of the advantages and disadvantages essay, there is no side to take and no verdict to reach. That doesn't mean the essay has no position at all, since Task Response expects a clear response to every Task 2 prompt, but here your position is just the set of problems and solutions you commit to, not a stance in a debate. Trying to argue an opinion usually pulls the essay off-task.

The rule the other guides skip: every solution answers a problem

Here is the move that separates a Band 7 problem-solution essay from a Band 6 one, and most template pages walk straight past it. Your solutions have to line up with the problems you raised.

It sounds obvious until you watch it break. A candidate writes about traffic in growing cities, names two problems, air pollution and lost commuting hours, then reaches the solution paragraph and proposes "the government should raise public awareness" and "schools should teach environmental values." Both are fine sentences. Neither fixes either problem. Awareness campaigns do not shorten a commute, and a school syllabus does not clear the air this decade. The examiner reading for a coherent response sees two solutions floating free of the essay's own problems, and the response stops holding together.

So before you write the solution paragraph, look back at the problems and give each one a home. Problem one was air pollution? Then a solution is expanding electric public transport or congestion charging, which attacks that exact problem. Problem two was time lost commuting? Then remote-work incentives or better rail frequency answers that one. Now the two halves are stitched together, and the essay reads as one argument rather than two lists sitting side by side. This is really a coherence and cohesion question dressed as a content one: alignment is what makes the whole thing cohere.

A simple test before you commit to an outline: could a reader draw a line from each solution back to a specific problem? If a solution has no problem to point to, cut it and write one that does.

The four paragraphs

You don't need a special template. The standard Task 2 shape carries it.

• Introduction. Two sentences. Paraphrase the situation, then signal that you'll cover both the problems (or causes) and the solutions. No dramatic opener, no "since the beginning of civilisation."
• Body paragraph one: problems. One or two problems, developed. State the problem, explain why it matters, ground it in a specific example. Two problems taken deep beat four listed flat.
• Body paragraph two: solutions. A matching solution for each problem, developed the same way. State the solution, explain how it works, and make the link back to the problem explicit.
• Conclusion. One or two sentences summarising the main problem and the main solution. Nothing new arrives here.

There is a second layout some teachers prefer: pair each problem with its solution in the same paragraph, so body one is problem-and-fix on one issue and body two is problem-and-fix on another. It forces alignment automatically, which is its appeal. For most candidates the cleaner split, problems in one paragraph and solutions in the next, is easier to control under 40 minutes, so start there and switch only if pairing suits your topic better.

Task Response, band by band

The descriptors turn all of this from advice into a score. At Band 7, "The main parts of the prompt are appropriately addressed," "A clear and developed position is presented," and "Main ideas are extended and supported": both problems and solutions covered and developed, with your response to the task clear throughout. At Band 6, "The main parts of the prompt are addressed (though some may be more fully covered than others)" and main ideas "may be insufficiently developed": the lopsided essay, all problems and a thin solution paragraph, is the shape that Band 6 wording describes. At Band 5, "The main parts of the prompt are incompletely addressed," which is what a missing solution half produces. The structure above is built to clear the Band 7 line: two developed halves, aligned.

A Band 9 model, and why it works

Take a common prompt: "In many countries the amount of household waste is increasing every year. What are the causes of this, and what can be done to solve the problem?"

Households in many countries throw away more each year than they did a decade ago, and the trend is driven as much by how goods are sold as by how people live. The causes are largely structural, and the fixes have to be structural too.

Two forces push the numbers up. The first is packaging. A single online grocery order now arrives wrapped in plastic film, boxed, and padded, so a family generates waste before it has eaten anything, and manufacturers compete partly on how eye-catching that packaging looks on a shelf. The second is the economics of disposability: a cheap kettle or a fast-fashion shirt often costs less to replace than to repair, so it is thrown out at the first fault rather than fixed. Both forces sit outside the individual shopper's control, which is why appeals to personal responsibility alone change so little.

Because the causes are structural, the answers have to reach the same level. To cut packaging waste, governments can tax excess packaging and require that it be recyclable, which pushes the cost back onto the producers who design it, and several European countries already do exactly this. To fight disposability, a mix of repair subsidies and stronger warranty rules makes fixing an appliance cheaper than binning it, which is the direct counterweight to the throwaway economics that created the problem. Each measure answers one of the two causes rather than gesturing at the issue in general.

Rising household waste, then, comes mainly from wasteful packaging and cheap disposable goods, and the most effective responses target those two causes directly, through packaging rules and repair incentives, rather than relying on households to consume less on their own.

Read what the essay does. The introduction paraphrases the situation and signals both halves in two sentences. The problems paragraph develops two causes with concrete detail, the online order, the fast-fashion shirt, rather than listing five. Then the move the essay turns on: the solutions paragraph answers each cause in turn, packaging rules for the packaging problem, repair incentives for the disposability problem, and it says so out loud ("Each measure answers one of the two causes"). Around 280 words, both halves developed, and every solution traceable to a stated cause.

The mistakes that cap you

A few faults account for most stalled essays here, and each maps to a Task Response line.

The lopsided essay is the most common: a rich problems paragraph and a solutions paragraph of two rushed sentences, which the "some may be more fully covered than others" descriptor catches directly. Right behind it is the unaligned solution, a fix that never connects to a problem you raised, which reads as an incoherent response. Then the shopping list, four or five problems each given one sentence, none developed, which the "insufficiently developed" line marks down. Vagueness is a quieter killer: "the government should take action" or "people should be more aware" are non-solutions, and an examiner reading for developed ideas sees nothing to reward. And the off-task drift, arguing whether the problem is really a problem, turns a solutions essay into a weak opinion essay and leaves half the task unwritten.

None of these is a grammar or vocabulary failure. They are all decided in the plan, before the first sentence, which is why the coherence of a problem-solution essay is set by its structure more than its linking words. The other three axes still count, of course: solutions are where your range of vocabulary and conditional structures get room to show, and clean grammar keeps a complex proposal readable.

Drill it in five minutes

A full essay takes 40 minutes and days to get marked. The pressure points here, alignment and specific solutions, train in far less.

• The pairing drill. Take one prompt, write two problems in the left column and one matching solution beside each in the right. Two minutes. If you can't draw a clean line from a solution to a problem, you've found the gap before the exam does.
• The one-solution drill. Take a single solution and build it into three sentences: the measure, how it works, the specific problem it answers. One deep solution teaches more than a list of five slogans.
• The specificity swap. Take a vague fix like "raise awareness" and rewrite it as something an examiner can picture: who does what, and to whom. "Councils fund free kerbside recycling collection" beats "encourage recycling" every time.

That's the idea behind IELTS Drills. Feedback comes back tagged to a single Band Descriptor, so when a problem-solution essay lands at 6.5 you can see whether the half-band went on an undeveloped solution half, a misaligned fix, or the grammar, and drill that one in five minutes a day.

Frequently asked questions

How many problems and solutions should I write? One or two of each, developed, not a list of five. Two problems with two matching solutions, each extended with a reason and an example, is the reliable shape for 250 to 290 words. Depth is what the higher band descriptors reward.

Do problems and solutions need to match? Yes, and it's the single biggest thing candidates miss. Every solution should fix a problem you actually raised. A solution with no problem to point to reads as an incoherent response and pulls down both Task Response and coherence.

Should I put problems and solutions in separate paragraphs or pair them? Either works. The cleaner split, all problems in body one and all solutions in body two, is easier to control under time pressure. Pairing each problem with its solution in one paragraph forces alignment automatically but takes more planning.

Is a cause-and-solution essay different? No, in practice. "Why is this happening and what can be done?" is planned and structured exactly like problem-solution: one half diagnoses, the other half fixes, with the fixes aligned to the causes.

Do I need to give my opinion? Not the way an opinion or discussion essay does: there's no side to take and no verdict to reach. Task Response still expects a clear response, but here that means presenting your problems and solutions clearly, not arguing a stance. A tacked-on personal opinion usually pulls the essay off-task.

How long should it be? At least 250 words, with roughly 270 to 290 giving you room to develop both halves. Under 250 costs you directly on Task Response.

The bottom line

The problem-solution essay is scored on two halves, not one: problems developed, solutions developed, and every solution wired back to a problem you raised. Give each half its own paragraph and comparable space, take one or two points deep instead of listing five, and make each solution concrete enough that an examiner can picture it working. Skip the verdict, because this type doesn't want one. If you want to see how it fits with the other four types, the Task 2 guide has the map; here, the whole game was matching every solution to a problem. With IELTS Drills, the feedback tells you which axis is still costing you the 0.5, five minutes a day.