Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-10-13

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)

In today's fast-paced world, many people work long hours, leaving them with less time for leisure activities. Although spending more hours in job offer many benefits, it can bring negative impacts on people's physical and mental well being. I believe disadvatages outweigh advantages.

On the one hand, prolonged working hours can provide financial and professional upbringing. Employees who work overtime may get addidional income, which can help in financial progression. Furthermore, spending more hours in job may allow individuals to develop their professional skills, gain valuable experience and increase their chances of promotion. For example, a newly employed person in retail sector may progress in many skills like way of approaching customers and dealing clients, if he has spend more time at work.

On the other hand, overtime work has disadvantages on one's personal life. Firstly, a lack of leisure time cause stress, fatigue and burnout. People who work for excessive hours can eventually reduce their productivity in certain ways. Secondly, spending most of the day time with work can lead to relationship issues within family or friends. They will not get enough opportunities to strengthen their relationships. For instance, parents who regularly work late may miss important family occassions and less time to spend with their children.In addition, recreations like exercising, travelling playing outdoor etc. those which are essential for one's health are degrading by excessive hours of work.

Even though, working long hours has benefits in increasing financial freedom and career growth; it may cause harm to our health and break relationships.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

Your position is clear from the introduction—“disadvantages outweigh advantages”—and remains consistent in the conclusion. You address both sides of the question: financial and career benefits are contrasted with effects on health and relationships. The examples about a retail employee developing customer skills and parents missing family occasions help support your points. This fits a response that addresses all parts and extends its ideas, although some claims are broad or could be explained more fully. For instance, the point that excessive work reduces productivity is asserted rather than illustrated, and the final reference to recreation and health is compressed. Develop these links with a specific explanation of how limited leisure produces the stated consequences.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The essay has a clear overall progression: an introduction states your view, the first body paragraph presents advantages, the second develops disadvantages, and the conclusion restates your judgement. Signposting such as “On the one hand,” “On the other hand,” and “Firstly” makes the organisation easy to follow. The ideas within each paragraph are generally ordered logically, and examples are placed near the claims they support. To make the progression more polished, connect some points more explicitly and avoid abrupt transitions. The sentence beginning “In addition, recreations…” feels appended rather than fully integrated with the discussion of family relationships and health. A clearer topic sentence and more precise links between cause and effect would strengthen cohesion further.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some relevant topic vocabulary, including “overtime,” “financial progression,” “professional skills,” “burnout,” and “strengthen their relationships.” This gives you enough range to discuss work, career development, and personal wellbeing. However, several noticeable word-choice, collocation, word-form, and spelling errors reduce precision: “professional upbringing” does not express career development, “addidional” is misspelled, and “recreations” is unnatural in this context. Phrases such as “degrading by excessive hours of work” are also difficult to interpret. Aim for accurate, natural combinations rather than more elaborate wording, and check spelling carefully. More precise vocabulary would make your arguments clearer and more fluent.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt a mix of simple and complex structures, including the concessive opening “Although…” and the conditional example about parents who work late. The main ideas are usually understandable, but errors occur across sentence patterns and often make the writing less controlled. For example, “spending more hours in job offer” has a subject–verb agreement problem and an incomplete article pattern; “a lack of leisure time cause” also needs agreement. In “if he has spend more time,” the verb form is incorrect, while “Even though…” is left as a dependent clause rather than a complete sentence. Review agreement, articles, verb forms, and sentence boundaries, then proofread each sentence for a complete main clause.

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.