Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-08-04

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)

Some people are involved in jobs where they have to work for long hours thus get very less time for their personal life. In my opinion, though this situation has some benefits but it has more drawbacks as it makes people annoyed as it leave no time for their personal life which I will explain in further paragraphs.

The main advantage of working for long hours is the pay they get because if one works more than standard hours in a day it will be treated as overtime and company will pay extra for that. Further some projects especially IT require long hours to develop the applications or update a software and these projects are also profitable. For example, game such as PUBG that has been developed by working for a year and during last stage people work so long thus they easily generated a great revenue during recent years.

On the other hand, the main drawback is people sometime feel annoyed and stressed as they are working for so long and they do not get any time to enjoy their life fully. Further their personal life and relations will suffer as they fail to spend time with their family due to overload of work. For instance, they have to miss parties or events due to work that creates differences. Lastly, they think that earning a lot of money will give them happiness and peace but actually it do not give anything just a status in society of being rich.

To summarize, one can say that working for long hours will only helps to earn money but it vanishes the happiness and refrain a person from enjoying his life fully. Although earning money is important so there should be a balance between personal and professional life only then an individual become happy and stress free.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, clearly stating a position that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. The ideas are relevant, such as the financial benefits of overtime versus the negative impact on personal well-being and relationships. However, the development is somewhat limited. The example of the game 'PUBG' is a bit specific and slightly underdeveloped in its connection to the broader argument. To reach a higher band, you should aim to expand on your points with more nuanced reasoning rather than relying on brief examples. The conclusion effectively summarizes your position, though it could be more robust in synthesizing the main arguments presented.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The essay is logically organized into clear paragraphs, each with a distinct focus. You use cohesive devices such as 'The main advantage', 'Further', 'On the other hand', and 'To summarize' to guide the reader through your argument. While the progression is generally clear, some transitions feel slightly mechanical. For instance, the jump between the financial benefit and the specific example of software development could be smoother. Additionally, the referencing is mostly clear, though some sentences are slightly repetitive in structure. Overall, the paragraphing is appropriate, and the flow of ideas is easy to follow throughout the response.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'standard hours', 'overtime', 'profitable', and 'professional life'. However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'vanishes the happiness' (which should be 'diminishes' or 'erodes') and 'refrain a person from' (which is used incorrectly here; 'prevents' would be better). You attempt to use some less common vocabulary, but these errors occasionally hinder the precision of your expression. To improve, focus on learning collocations—words that naturally go together—to ensure your writing sounds more natural and precise.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally affect readability. For example, 'thus get very less time' should be 'thus they have very little time', and 'it do not give anything' should be 'it does not give anything'. There are also issues with subject-verb agreement and article usage throughout the text. While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding your message, they are frequent enough to keep the score in the 6.0 range. Focusing on proofreading for basic subject-verb agreement and pluralization will significantly improve your accuracy.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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