Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-08-12

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)

A growing number for people work for extended hours. As a result, they are unable to allocate adequate time to leisure activities. According to me, although this trend offers some benefits, its has more disadvantages.

To commence with, the primary disadvantage of working longer hours without leaving anytime for leisure activities is that it is one of the major reasons for prevalent social isolation. To expound, since people who take additional shifts and work extra hours hardly get anytime to meet their friends and relatives. As a result, they gradually develop a natural ability of disliking social gatherings. To exemplify, top performers in academics usually have a very small friend circle or sometimes they do not even have one. This is because they focus more on studies rather than involving themselves in social activities. Additionally, leaving no time for leisure activities also leads to depression. To elaborate, due to the sky-rocketing competition at workplace, employee work more to impress their managers. Consequently, leaving very little time to involve themselves in other activities.

On the other hand, despite having many demerits, there is a credible advantage. People who work more have considerably higher chances of promotion at workplace. Although they have to sacrifice their personal life, they climb the designation ladder quickly. Hence, they are able to make more money than others. For example, Sundar Pachai, the CEO of google has mentioned in his biography that he used to work for longer hours to complete his task before deadline in order to stay in limelight and gain frequent promotions.

To conclude, this essay has discussed disadvantages for working longer hours such as social isolation and higher chances of depression whereas also mentioned that working more hours may lead to frequent promotions and higher pay as an advantage.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the task and maintains a clear position throughout. The arguments regarding social isolation and career advancement are relevant and supported by examples. However, the development of ideas is somewhat uneven; for instance, the link between academic performance and social isolation is a bit tenuous and could have been more directly connected to the prompt about working hours. The conclusion is a summary rather than a synthesis of the argument. To reach a higher band, ensure that each supporting point is fully explored and directly linked to the core question of whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is logically organized into paragraphs, each with a clear focus. Cohesive devices such as 'To commence with', 'To expound', and 'On the other hand' are used to guide the reader. However, some transitions feel slightly mechanical or repetitive. The referencing is generally clear, though there are minor issues with sentence-level flow, such as the sentence 'Consequently, leaving very little time to involve themselves in other activities', which is a fragment. Improving the variety of linking words and ensuring that every sentence is grammatically complete would enhance the overall flow and coherence.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, with some attempts at less common items like 'sky-rocketing', 'prevalent', and 'designation ladder'. However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'According to me' (should be 'In my opinion'), 'disliking social gatherings' (awkward phrasing), and 'stay in limelight' (should be 'stay in the limelight'). While these errors do not impede communication, they indicate a need for more precise control over idiomatic expressions and collocations to reach a higher band level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ('its has more disadvantages'), article usage ('the CEO of google'), and sentence fragments ('Consequently, leaving very little time...'). Punctuation is generally functional, but the frequency of these errors prevents the writing from reaching a higher band. To improve, focus on proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy and ensuring that complex sentences are constructed correctly without missing subjects or verbs.

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

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