Exams reward small details. One of them is how you write numbers. In an IELTS essay, a school test, or a formal letter, writing "twenty-three" instead of "23" in the wrong place — or the other way round — can cost you marks for style and accuracy. The rules are simpler than they look once you know them.
Start with the general rule most style guides agree on. Spell out numbers from zero to ten in running text, and use figures for numbers above ten. So you write "three students" but "27 students". This is the rule examiners expect in essays and letters, and it keeps your writing looking clean and formal.
There are exceptions you must learn. Always spell out a number that starts a sentence, no matter how large it is. "Twenty-five candidates applied" is correct; "25 candidates applied" at the start of a sentence is not. Dates, times, percentages, and measurements usually stay in figures: 14 March, 3:30 pm, 45%, 12 km. Money in formal writing is often written both ways on cheques and legal documents, but in an exam essay, figures are fine unless the question asks otherwise.
Ordinal numbers trip up many learners. First, second, third, and twenty-first are spelled out in text, just like cardinal numbers. In dates, though, the ordinal is usually dropped: write "14 March", not "14th of March", in formal exam writing. For rankings and floors, spell out the small ones — "she finished third", "he lives on the second floor" — and use figures for larger ones.
The most common exam mistake is mixing the two styles in one sentence. Do not write "I interviewed 5 teachers and twenty students". Pick one style for comparable numbers in the same sentence and stick to it. Another common mistake is the hyphen: compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine always take a hyphen when spelled out, and so do fractions used as adjectives, like "a two-thirds majority".
If you are unsure about a large or awkward number, check it with a free numbers-to-words converter before you hand in your work. Practising with real examples — your age, your address number, a cheque amount — turns these rules into habit, and that habit shows up as marks in the exam room.
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