Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-09-13

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)

Nowdays, people want to become a successful person in their life. To achieve their goals, they work hard for long hours and hardly get spare time for their personal interests. While this trend has benefits such as more financial stability and stable jobs, it has several drawbacks varying from less social interaction and mental stress.

To begin with, there are several advantages of working long hours. Primarily, working for long hours makes a person financially stable. To corroborate this, an overtime is paid to an employee, who works more than the regular hours. It means, the person will have more bank balance as compared to the other employees. Another noticeable benefit is to get a stable job. Many corporate sectors evaluate the employee performace on the basis of time spent in the office. Thus, when the workers work for long hours in the office, they get recognised by their Manager and get promotion.

However, its disadvantages cannot be ignored. Firstly, a person becomes less socially attached, while spending more time in the office. Since a person spend most of his time in the office, he gets less exposure to deal in the society. For example, in Canada, a lot of individuals work for long hours and get almost no time to go out with their friends and play with thier children after work. This not only makes them less socially engaged, but they also miss important events, while working late night in the office. Mental stress is another alarming concern in the contemporary era. Long late night job involves working at night, which distrupts the sleeping patteern of a person. As a result, a person faces serious mental and physical health issues.

In conclusion, although, working more than regular office hours could support a person financially and stable jobs, I strongly believe, its drawbacks are more concerning such as poor mental health and lack of social interation.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The student addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of working long hours, and presents a clear position throughout. The introduction outlines the benefits and drawbacks, and the conclusion restates this stance firmly. Main ideas are supported with explanations and examples, such as the mention of corporate evaluations and the Canadian context. However, some arguments tend to over-generalize, and explanations could be further extended for a higher band. Specifically, points like financial stability and mental stress are presented logically and directly answer the prompt. Overall, the response meets the criteria for Band 6.5, rounded to 6.5, as it addresses all parts effectively with relevant ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The response displays a clear overall progression with a logical arrangement of ideas. Paragraphing is used appropriately, dividing the introduction, advantages, disadvantages, and conclusion into distinct sections. Cohesive devices are employed to signal transitions, such as 'To begin with', 'However', and 'In conclusion'. However, some referencing is slightly faulty or mechanical, such as the transition 'To corroborate this' which is less natural in this context, and minor cohesion issues appear in sentence linking. Paragraph transitions generally guide the reader smoothly, though paragraph internal cohesion can be improved. This places the essay solidly at a Band 6.5, reflecting a coherent structure with occasional mechanical use of cohesive devices.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common lexical items such as 'financial stability', 'contemporary era', and 'distrupts'. However, there are notable spelling errors ('Nowdays', 'performace', 'thier', 'patteern', 'interation') and occasional word-choice inaccuracies, such as 'deal in the society' instead of 'participate in society'. While these errors do not impede communication, they prevent the essay from achieving a higher band. The variety of vocabulary is sufficient to convey the intended meaning, but precision and spelling consistency need attention. Consequently, the lexical resource fits comfortably within the Band 6 descriptor.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional-like structures ('when the workers work for long hours... they get recognised'). There are several grammatical errors and awkward phrasings throughout the text, such as 'an overtime is paid' (uncountable noun usage), 'spending more time in the office, he gets' (pronoun number agreement with 'individuals'), and punctuation slips. Nevertheless, these errors rarely impede communication, and the basic meaning remains clear. The control of grammar is typical of a Band 6 performance, where a mix of structures is demonstrated alongside persistent minor errors.

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

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