Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-08-01

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)

In recent times, it is evident that most people are working for long hours to earn a decent living. Therefore, they do not get enough time for leisure activities. I truly believe that this trend outweigh disadvantages than its advantages.

First of all, the main reason behind this are financial needs. Everything has become so expensive that in order to meet family and personal needs one has to work to earn it. This leads to people work for several hours as most people are working at low wages. For example, single earner of a family of five have to give most of his time to work for his family instead of enjoying other activities. Eventually, this will effect a person's health life in long run. He will feel stressed, depressed and can attract other health related problems such as heart diseases.

Furthermore, people working for long period are not able to explore themselves. They do not have time to work on their choices or hobbies where they could grow more personally and professionally. While, most of them are stuck doing regular monotonous work where there is no roomd for growth left. To illustrate, a person could be a great painter in his free time but he do not get enough time to pursue it as he is occupied with a responsibility of earning for his family and gives his most of the time to work.

To conclude, giving less time to leisure activities does not only have emmotional effects, it also comes up with physical as well as financial effects which limits a person to grow in his or her life upto the potential they have.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear position that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. The ideas are relevant, focusing on financial necessity and personal development. However, the development is somewhat limited. For instance, the argument regarding financial needs is clear, but the second paragraph could be more nuanced by exploring the societal impact of long working hours rather than just individual hobbies. The conclusion effectively summarizes the main points. To reach a higher band, ensure that each body paragraph provides a more comprehensive exploration of the consequences, perhaps by contrasting the short-term financial gain with the long-term societal costs.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The essay is logically organized into clear paragraphs, each with a central theme. Cohesive devices such as 'First of all,' 'Furthermore,' and 'To conclude' are used to guide the reader through the argument. However, some transitions feel slightly mechanical, and there are minor issues with referencing, such as the use of 'he' when referring to a generic 'person' or 'earner,' which could be more inclusive or generalized. The progression of ideas is generally smooth, though the link between the financial necessity argument and the health consequences could be more tightly integrated to improve the flow of the paragraph.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express their ideas clearly. There are some attempts at less common collocations, such as 'monotonous work' and 'pursue it.' However, there are occasional errors in word choice and form, such as 'health life' instead of 'physical health' and 'roomd' (a typo). The range is sufficient to convey the message, but it lacks the precision and sophistication required for higher bands. Expanding the range of synonyms and using more precise academic vocabulary would enhance the quality of the writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors that affect the accuracy of the writing. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues like 'this trend outweigh' (should be 'outweighs') and 'he do not get' (should be 'he does not get'). Additionally, there are minor punctuation and spelling errors. While these errors do not impede communication, they are frequent enough to prevent a higher score. Focusing on subject-verb agreement and consistent verb tense usage would significantly improve the grammatical accuracy.

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