Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · 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 6.5)

In recent years, people started working an extra hour as a result they cannot give time to social activities. Although this situation can bring some benefits, such as higher earning and better career opportunities, I believe that the disadvantages are more significant because excessive work hours can negatively impact on people’s health and lives.

One major advantage of working extra hours is the opportunity to earn higher income. People who work long hours can make more money which can help them to fulfill their financial goals such as buying own home, personal luxury car and they can provide better education to their children as well as travel around the world. In addition, spending more hours at work help employee to gain valuable experience and improve professional skills. For example, a person who regularly takes an additional responsibility may get promoted easily as compared to the employee who work standard hours.

On the other hand, there are numerous drawbacks of working additional hours every day. Employee who works longer hours may suffer from health problems such as back pain, neck pain, headache, stress and anxiety which can lead to serious problem. Moreover, excessive work hours may disturb personal life as well because a person who is giving additional time to his work cannot spend time with his friends and family as a result, they may face struggle in maintaining their relationship. For example, a employee who is spending all day at his work miss the opportunity to go out with kids and wife to spend quality time together. As leisure activities help people to give time to their personal life and maintain healthy lifestyle.

In conclusion, although working long hours can lead to higher income and career advancement, I believe that the disadvantage is outweigh the advantages. In my view, maintaining a reasonable balance in work life and personal life is essential for both long term success and personal well-being.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, providing a clear position that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. The ideas are relevant and generally well-developed. The advantages (income, career progression) and disadvantages (health, work-life balance) are clearly contrasted. However, the development of ideas could be more nuanced to reach a higher band; for instance, the link between 'leisure activities' and 'healthy lifestyle' is mentioned but could be expanded upon with more specific detail. Overall, the response is well-focused and maintains a consistent position throughout.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is logically organized with a clear introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used effectively to separate the advantages from the disadvantages. Cohesive devices such as 'In addition', 'On the other hand', and 'Moreover' are used to guide the reader. However, there are some minor issues with mechanical cohesion, such as the run-on sentence in the introduction ('...extra hour as a result they cannot...') and some slightly repetitive phrasing. The progression of ideas is clear, but the flow could be improved with more varied transition markers.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is sufficient to convey ideas clearly. There is an attempt to use topic-specific vocabulary like 'career advancement', 'financial goals', and 'professional skills'. However, the range is somewhat limited, and there are occasional errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'buying own home' (missing article) and 'a employee' (incorrect article). While the vocabulary is adequate for the task, it lacks the sophistication and precision required for higher bands. Expanding the range of synonyms and collocations would enhance the quality of the writing.

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, particularly with articles ('a employee', 'the employee'), subject-verb agreement ('employee who works', 'disadvantage is outweigh'), and punctuation. Some sentences are slightly awkward, such as 'a person who is giving additional time to his work cannot spend time...'. These errors do not impede communication, but they are frequent enough to prevent a higher score. More attention to proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy would be beneficial.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.