Exam Change Briefing · 1 September 2026

The screen changes how you write. 机考简报 · 变的不是考什么，是你怎么写

From 1 September 2026, IELTS in mainland China is computer-delivered only. The test partners are explicit that the content, task types, timing and assessment criteria are unchanged — and they are right. The change is to your writing process, and your writing process is what Coherence & Cohesion assesses. Download as PDF →

The facts first 先把事实说清楚

What changed, and what did not.哪些变了，哪些没变。

Every line below is the test partners' own position, not an interpretation. Check it at source before you plan around it — arrangements differ by centre and by test type.以下均为官方公告内容，并非我的解读。报名前请以官方公告为准 —— 各考点、各考试类型的安排可能不同。

The announcement · 官方公告要点

Item	Status
Test content, task types, difficulty 考试内容、题型、难度	Unchanged. A Task 2 essay is the same essay, with the same 40 minutes, whether it arrives on paper or on screen.
Assessment criteria 评分标准与测评维度	Unchanged. TR CC LR GRA — the same four, weighted the same way.
Paper-based IELTS in mainland China 中国大陆纸笔考试	Ends 1 September 2026. IELTS for UKVI in mainland China moved to computer-delivered earlier, from 1 July 2026.
A “Writing on paper” option 「写作用纸笔」选项	Not offered in mainland China. Some markets have run a hybrid; China's announcement does not.
Speaking 口语考试	Still a face-to-face interview with a human examiner. Computer-delivered refers to Listening, Reading and Writing.
Results turnaround 出分时间	Roughly 3–5 days, against about 13 for paper. This matters more than it looks — see the last section.

Verify at source. Dates, centre availability and fees are set by the test partners and can change. This page is a teaching commentary, not an official notice. 考试日期、考点安排与费用以官方公告为准；本页是教学评论，不是官方通知。

The claim 核心观点

It does not change what is assessed. It changes how you compose.机考不改变考什么。它改变你怎么写。

Most coverage of this change is about typing speed, screen fatigue and the on-screen word count. Those are real and minor. The consequential change is one nobody announces, because it is not a rule — it is a removed cost.大多数讨论集中在打字速度、屏幕疲劳和字数统计 —— 这些是真的，但都是小事。真正重要的变化没人公告，因为它不是一条规定，而是一项被取消的成本。

The mechanism · 机制

On paper 纸笔时代	Rewriting a paragraph was expensive. Crossing out and re-copying cost minutes you did not have and left a mess an examiner would read. That cost quietly forced a decision before the pen moved: what am I actually arguing? 改一段话代价很高 —— 划掉重写要花掉你没有的时间，还会留下考官要看的涂改。这个代价在无形中逼你在动笔前先决定：我到底要论证什么？
On screen 机考时代	Revision is free. Backspace, select, delete, retype — no trace, no penalty. So nothing forces the decision any more. You can begin typing a sentence before you know where it ends. 修改零成本。退格、选中、删除、重打，不留痕迹，没有代价。于是没有任何东西再逼你先做决定 —— 你可以在还不知道句子往哪走的时候就开始打字。
The trap 陷阱在这里	Free revision only helps a candidate who uses it. Under exam pressure almost nobody goes back and restructures — they keep typing forwards. So the discipline paper imposed is gone, and the freedom the screen offers is not taken up. What is left is four paragraphs that each drift somewhere slightly different. 修改自由只对真的会回头改的人有用。考场压力之下几乎没人回去重构 —— 大家只会一路往下打。结果是：纸带来的纪律没了，屏幕给的自由没用上，剩下四段各自漂移的文字。
Where it costs marks 扣在哪里	CC An answer whose paragraphs each point somewhere slightly different is not a grammar problem — every sentence can be correct. TR In an opinion task, a position that was never decided cannot be assessed as maintained.

This is the same weakness the plateau briefing describes. Chinese rhetoric builds toward its conclusion — 起承转合 — while English states the point first. A candidate carrying that habit was partly protected by paper, because paper made them plan. The screen removes the protection. Read the four layers →

The second-order effect 第二个后果

Typing is good for template users. That is the problem.打字确实对背模板的人有利 —— 问题正在这里。

The usual framing is that computer delivery rewards candidates who have memorised openers, because they can produce them faster. That is true. Follow it one step further and it inverts.通常的说法是：机考对背了模板的人有利，因为他们能更快打出来。这是对的。但再往下想一步，结论会反过来。

The arithmetic · 算一笔账

	By hand	By keyboard
A memorised 25-word opener 一个背诵开头	Around 90 seconds, and it hurts.	Around 25 seconds, and it barely registers.
Who uses it 谁会用	Only candidates willing to spend the time.	Effectively everyone who knows one.
What that does to it 结果是什么	A phrase is recognisable in proportion to how often it is seen. “With the development of society…” was already drilled widely enough to be spotted on sight. Cutting the cost to roughly a third does not make it more valuable — it makes it far more common, and a common opener is a louder signal that what follows may be rehearsed. 一个句子被认出的速度，取决于它出现的频率。「With the development of society…」本来就已经密集到考官一眼认出。把代价降到三分之一，不会让它更值钱 —— 只会让它更常见，而越常见，越是在提示考官：后面可能也是背的。

Professional judgement, not measurement. The two figures are illustrative, not measured: handwriting under exam conditions runs at roughly 20 words per minute and steady typing at roughly 60, so a 25-word opener costs about a minute and a half by hand against about half a minute by keyboard. I have not counted openers across scripts and neither, publicly, has anyone else. This is a prediction from how marking works, offered so teachers can test it against what they see this autumn — not a finding. 这是基于评分机制的判断，不是统计结果。

What to do about it 怎么办

Put the cost of paper back in, deliberately.把纸的成本，自己加回去。

The fix is not to type more slowly. It is to reintroduce, on purpose, the one thing paper used to impose for free: a decision made before the first keystroke.解决办法不是放慢打字速度，而是主动把纸曾经免费提供的那一件事加回来：在敲下第一个键之前，先做完决定。

Six adjustments · 六项调整

#	Adjustment	Why
1	Write one position sentence on the scratch paper before you type anything. Twenty seconds, one sentence. 动手打字前，先在草稿纸上写下一句立场句。二十秒，一句话。	If you cannot write it, you have not decided yet — and four paragraphs are about to prove it. TR CC
2	Type your four paragraph points into the answer box first, as a skeleton, then write over them. 先把四段的要点直接打进答题框当骨架，再逐段展开覆盖。	Uses the free-revision advantage instead of ignoring it. The plan lives where you will actually look at it. CC
3	Treat the on-screen word count as a checkpoint, not a target — glance at it twice, not continuously. 屏幕字数统计是检查点，不是目标 —— 全程看两次就够。	A live counter pulls attention toward length and away from argument. Length is not a criterion; development is. TR
4	Reserve the last four minutes for a read-back with your eyes on the screen, not the keyboard. 留出最后四分钟，眼睛盯屏幕回读一遍，不看键盘。	Typos, dropped articles and missing plurals are far easier to miss on screen than on paper. GRA
5	Practise on a standard external keyboard, not your laptop or phone. 用标准外接键盘练习，不要只用笔记本或手机。	Test centres use desktop keyboards. Muscle memory built on a different layout costs minutes on the day.
6	Know the interface before you meet it: no spellcheck, no autocorrect, cut/copy/paste available, timer on screen. 提前熟悉界面：没有拼写检查、没有自动更正，可以剪切复制粘贴，屏幕上有计时器。	Every minute spent discovering the interface is a minute taken from composing. Familiarity is free; surprise is not.

Do this in every practice essay from now on. Not on the day. A habit introduced under exam conditions is not a habit — it is one more thing to remember while the clock runs.

Speaking is unaffected — and that is worth saying 口语不受影响 —— 这一点值得单独说

Same test 形式不变	The Speaking test remains a face-to-face interview with a human examiner. Nothing in this change touches it.
Same weakness 问题也不变	But the habit described above — answering before deciding what the answer is — is the same habit that flattens a Part 3 response. Fixing it for Writing fixes it for Speaking. That is the argument for treating this as a thinking problem rather than a typing problem. The four layers →

The last consequence 最后一个后果

A faster result buys you the same score sooner.出分更快，只是让你更快拿到同一个分数。

What shortens 变短的是什么	Results move from roughly 13 days to roughly 3–5. Sittings are more frequent. Rebooking is quicker.
What does not 没变短的是什么	The time it takes to change how you write. That is measured in weeks of deliberate practice, not in days of waiting.
The predictable error 可预见的错误	A short gap between result and rebooking invites retaking before anything has changed — three sittings, three near-identical scores, three fees. The speed is a genuine benefit; spending it on repetition is the waste. 出分与重考之间的间隔一短，很多人会在什么都没改之前就去重考 —— 考三次，拿到三个几乎一样的分数，交三次费用。出分快是真的好事，把它花在重复上才是浪费。
A reasonable rule 一个合理的做法	Before rebooking, be able to name in one sentence what you will do differently. If you cannot name it, the next sitting is a re-run.

No material can promise a band score, and this one does not. Results depend on starting level, test-day performance and examiner variation. What a process fix can honestly offer is the removal of a predictable, self-inflicted deduction. 任何材料都不能承诺分数，本文也不承诺。

How this was compiled 编制方法说明

What this is — and what it isn't.

Method note · 说明

The facts	The transition dates, the unchanged-content statement, the absence of a paper Writing option in mainland China and the results turnaround are the test partners' published position. They are reported here, not derived. Verify at source before you book.
The argument	The claim that removing revision cost degrades planning — and that this lands on CC and TR — is professional judgement, not measurement. It comes from watching Chinese candidates plan and write in Beijing over roughly ten years, and from what the criteria reward. No frequencies are quoted because none were counted.
On the descriptors	The assessment criteria are named and paraphrased. The official band descriptors are not reproduced here; they are published by the IELTS partners and should be read at source.
Credentials	Certified by IDP Education in Understanding the Assessment Criteria for both Speaking and Writing. IDP is one of the three organisations that jointly own IELTS. This is a teacher-training certificate — IELTS has not endorsed this briefing, the books, or the classes. Certificate numbers →

Corrections welcome. If you teach this population and you are seeing something different this autumn, say so — get in touch. A prediction that cannot be checked is not worth publishing.

Take it further 继续深入

Download it, or go deeper.下载，或继续深入。

Everything below is free and needs no sign-up.以下全部免费，无需注册。

This briefing as a PDF 本简报 PDF 版	The same material as a printable A4 document you can hand out in class or forward to a study group. Free, no sign-up.
The Computer Test Myths 机考谣言澄清	What candidates believe about computer-delivered IELTS that is not true — typing speed, handwriting marks, screen marking, and the rest.
Why Chinese candidates plateau at 6.5 证据简报 · 6.5 瓶颈	The four layers of first-language transfer. Layer 4 — argument order — is the one this change exposes.
The P-E-E-C paragraph sheet P-E-E-C 段落结构表	Point first, then explain, then evidence, then link back — a sequence that survives being typed straight into a box.
The full method 完整方法论	Fourteen frameworks that replace memorised templates with sequences a candidate can run under pressure — on paper or on screen.

The composition sequence behind adjustments 1 and 2 is set out in full in IELTS Academic Writing: Complete Band 7+ Guide. Browse the series →