The B2 First Writing Paper: What Examiners Are Actually Looking For

Most B2 First candidates prepare for the Writing paper as if it were a grammar test with a word count attached. It isn't. Examiners mark every script against four separate criteria, and grammar and vocabulary are only one of them, worth exactly the same as the other three combined into one quarter each. If you've spent most of your prep time polishing sentence-level accuracy, you've been optimising for 25% of the mark and leaving the other 75% to chance.

The four things examiners actually score

Cambridge's Writing Assessment Scale marks both Part 1 and Part 2 against the same four criteria, each scored from 0 to 5, giving 20 marks per task and 40 across the paper. Both tasks require 140 to 190 words, written within an 80-minute paper that counts for 20% of your overall B2 First result, the same weight as Reading, Use of English, Listening, and Speaking. This same four-criteria structure runs through Cambridge's other Writing exams too, including C1 Advanced, just calibrated to a higher standard. Here's what each one actually rewards.

• Content asks a single question: did you answer the task, completely, and only the task? Every required point needs to be addressed. Anything irrelevant you add doesn't earn credit, and can actively work against you if it crowds out the points that do.
• Communicative Achievement is genre and register awareness. Does the writing do what this specific task type is supposed to do? An email needs a greeting, an appropriate tone, and a sign-off. A review needs an actual recommendation, not just a description. An essay needs to read like a developed argument, not a list of disconnected opinions. This criterion also covers whether the writing holds a reader's attention, which is a real, scored factor, not a vague nicety.
• Organisation is structure: paragraphing, logical sequencing, and a genuine range of linking devices. Text that's grammatically clean but built entirely from "and," "but," and "so" reads as less organised than it is accurate, and gets marked accordingly.
• Language is the one everyone already prepares for: range and accuracy of grammar and vocabulary. It matters, but it's a quarter of the picture, not the whole of it.

Where this catches candidates off guard

The pattern that shows up most often isn't weak English. It's strong English aimed at the wrong target.

A candidate with excellent grammar can still lose marks on Content by missing one bullet point in the task, because the scale doesn't give partial credit for quality if the answer is incomplete. A candidate can write a flawless paragraph and lose marks on Communicative Achievement because they wrote an email in essay register, with no greeting and no sign-off, which reads as not having understood the task type at all. A candidate can produce accurate sentence after accurate sentence and still lose Organisation marks because every sentence is joined the same way, with no real structure connecting the ideas.

None of this shows up if you only check your writing for grammar mistakes, which is exactly why it goes unnoticed until the results come back lower than expected.

Part 1 and Part 2 ask for different things, against the same four criteria

Part 1 is compulsory: an opinion essay responding to a question, usually with two given points to address and a third idea of your own. The most common way to lose marks here isn't grammar. It's addressing only one of the two given points, or writing a one-sided argument when the task actually called for a balanced discussion before you reach a conclusion.

Part 2 gives you a choice between a small set of task types, commonly an email or letter, an article, a review, or a report, depending on the version set on the day. The most common way to lose marks here is choosing a task type because the topic feels familiar, then writing it in the wrong register for what that task type actually requires. An email that reads like a formal report, or a review that never actually recommends anything, costs Communicative Achievement marks even when every sentence inside it is grammatically correct.

A working self-check before exam day

Run a finished draft against these four questions before you call it done:

1. Content: Have I addressed every required point, and only those? Is there anything in here that doesn't need to be?
2. Communicative Achievement: Does this actually read like the task type I was given? Right tone, right structural conventions, the kind of opening and closing that type of writing is supposed to have?
3. Organisation: Is this built from clear paragraphs with a real range of connectors, or is it the same two or three linking words doing all the work?
4. Language: Have I shown range, not just accuracy? Have I attempted at least one or two structures outside my comfort zone, rather than playing it completely safe?

If you can only answer "yes" confidently to the fourth question, that's the clearest sign your preparation has been lopsided. The other three are worth three times as much, combined, and they're also the three most students never specifically train for.

Frequently asked questions

How many words should a B2 First Writing answer be?

Between 140 and 190 words for each task, Part 1 and Part 2 alike. Aim toward the upper half of that range, around 160 to 180 words, rather than the bare minimum. Writing fewer than 140 words usually means a required point has been left out, which costs Content marks regardless of how clean the English is. There's no penalty for going slightly over 190, but padding past that tends to introduce more errors than it's worth.

How long is the B2 First Writing paper?

80 minutes for both tasks combined, with no fixed split between them. Most candidates plan for roughly 40 minutes per task, including a few minutes of planning before writing, since a clear plan is what prevents the Organisation and Content slips described above.

What percentage of the overall exam is Writing?

20%. B2 First has five equally weighted papers, Reading and Use of English, Writing, Listening, and Speaking, each contributing a quarter of the final result.

Can you fail the Writing paper and still pass B2 First overall?

Yes. You do not need to pass every individual paper. Your grade is the average of your five scores, and the B2 pass boundary sits at 160 on the Cambridge Scale, so a weaker Writing score can be offset by stronger results elsewhere. There is no minimum you must hit in any single paper, which is exactly why Writing is worth preparing properly rather than treating as a component you can afford to sacrifice.

Where this actually starts

A grammar score tells you about a quarter of your Writing result. It doesn't tell you whether you're losing marks because you're missing task points, writing in the wrong register for the task type, or under-organising paragraphs that are otherwise accurate. Those are three separate, fixable skills, and they don't show up on a self-check that only looks for mistakes.

This is why Writing inside a Fluensys programme is reviewed by a human instructor against the exam's actual criteria, not auto-graded for grammar alone. If Content, Communicative Achievement, or Organisation are where your real gap is, that's where the feedback goes, rather than another round of grammar correction for a category that was never the problem.