Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-08-16

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 6.0)

Large portion of population does long working hours could leads to less time for fun activity. I believe it has negative impact on person and society itself. It has more disadvantages than the advantages.

On the one hand, working for extra hours gives people more opportunity to earn hefty amount. Secondly, it helps a person to gain attention from boss and get promotion or better life. Other than that, it can boost experience and helps to acquire skills by spending more time on it. For instance, doctor work extra time to save patients life. Scientist spend do extra duty at lab and do research.

On the other hand, it has several demerits which ultimately outweigh the advantages. The main problem is health. Working excessive hours can leads to numerous health issues like heart disease, back pain, deep vein thrombosis or mental exhaustion. In recent research conducted by the World health organization, people who work more than 55 hours per week result in heart attack at work place or home. In addition, it cause lack of family time, as people spend most of their time at institute and forget about family. It cause break in relationships. Person can burn out without fun hobbies or rest, the mind gets too tired. This lowers overall happiness.

To recapitulate, relentless hours may leaving less time for leisure activity. It has several benefits but not more than working in healthy duration make person fit as fiddle. Following a hobby can promote both physical and mental health of a person. People should prioritize the work-life balance.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of working long hours, ultimately taking a clear position that the disadvantages outweigh the benefits. The ideas are relevant, such as the mention of financial gain and career progression as advantages, and health and family issues as disadvantages. However, the development of these points is somewhat superficial. For instance, the examples regarding doctors and scientists are brief and could be expanded to better illustrate the point. The conclusion is clear, but the overall argument would benefit from more depth and specific, well-explained examples to reach a higher band.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, with a clear introduction, body paragraphs for both sides of the argument, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'On the one hand', 'Secondly', and 'In addition', which help guide the reader. However, some transitions are mechanical or slightly awkward, such as 'Other than that' and 'To recapitulate'. The progression of ideas is generally clear, but the internal structure of the paragraphs could be improved by better linking sentences to ensure a smoother flow of information throughout the text.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is generally adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express their ideas clearly. There are some attempts at less common vocabulary, such as 'hefty amount', 'demerits', and 'fit as a fiddle'. However, there are also instances of imprecise word choice and minor collocation errors, such as 'do extra duty' instead of 'work extra hours' and 'result in heart attack' instead of 'increase the risk of heart attacks'. While these errors do not impede communication, they limit the range and precision of the language used.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the writer attempts complex sentences, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'doctor work extra time', 'it cause lack of family time') and article usage (e.g., 'in recent research'). Punctuation is generally functional, but there are some awkward phrasings that affect the overall fluency. To improve, the writer should focus on mastering basic grammatical rules like verb tense consistency and pluralization, as these errors occur frequently throughout the response.

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