Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-07-30

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Many people work long hours, leaving very little time for leisure activities.

Does this situation have more advantages or more disadvantages?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

 

Student answer (Band 6.5)

Nowadays, there are a lot people who prefer working long hours over leaving no time for leisure activities. In this situation according to me disadvantages overweigh advantages in many reasons.

First and most crucial disadvantage about this situation: Stress and depression. The reason behind this is when people don't do any indoor or even outdoor activities they become more irritated, annoyed, depressed and more stressed. Instead doing work for long shifts people should go out with your family, friends or even co-workers to do some fun activities, travel to new places and enjoy good and healthy food. This would make your mind fresh, improve your focus and stress relief.

Second reason is: Poor physical health. If your job requires sitting work then that makes you physically weak as it could cause back or neck pain, gaining weight. So, to avoid all these problems we all should do leisure activities to make ourselves more healthy and strong. In free times we should go to gym, do home workout , running and bicycling.

I want to give one example from my own experience, During my summer vacations I worked at call center which was fully seated job, and always using screens which even affected my eyesight. My job was to attend calls which became very stressful and I also went through depression because i just worked day and night not doing any activities.

So, I would personally recommend we should give some time to ourselves and grow some other skills apart from doing just one job.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear position that the disadvantages of working long hours outweigh the advantages. The ideas regarding stress and physical health are relevant and supported by a personal example. However, the development is somewhat limited; the essay focuses almost exclusively on the negative aspects without acknowledging the potential advantages (such as financial gain or career progression), which would have provided a more balanced and comprehensive discussion. To reach a higher band, ensure that both sides of the argument are explored before concluding, as this demonstrates a more sophisticated engagement with the task requirements.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, each with a clear focus. There is a basic attempt to use cohesive devices such as 'First', 'Second', and 'So', which helps the reader follow the argument. However, the transition between ideas is sometimes mechanical, and the use of cohesive devices is limited. The referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the opening sentence where the phrasing is slightly awkward. Improving the variety of linking words and ensuring smoother transitions between sentences would enhance the overall flow and coherence of the writing.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task but remains quite basic. Phrases like 'do some fun activities' and 'do some time' are repetitive and lack precision. While the student attempts to use topic-specific vocabulary like 'irritated', 'depressed', and 'physical health', there is a lack of flexibility and less common lexical items. Some word choices are slightly unnatural, such as 'fully seated job'. To improve, the student should focus on using more precise collocations and a wider range of vocabulary to express complex ideas more effectively.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are frequent grammatical errors, including missing articles ('at call center'), incorrect preposition usage, and issues with subject-verb agreement ('disadvantages overweigh advantages in many reasons'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with the use of colons and capitalization. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to affect the clarity of the message. Increasing the variety of complex structures and proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy would significantly improve the score.

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