Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-10-24

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)

Nowadays, people work overtime to meet their demands and focus less on curriculam activities. Undoubtdely, working long hours helps to earn good money. However, in my opinion this trend has more demertis than merits.

On the one hand, working long hours has some benefits. Firstly, it increases income. People receive more money for working overtime. They could use this money to pay off their all daily expenses. Thus, people would be relieved from a financial burden. Secondly, people receives an opportunity to grow in their career. An individual could be promoted to a higher position according to their performance in company. For example, a Manager of company often take initate to increase a salary or to promote employees who are ready to work long shifts.

However, the disadvantages are much more serious. The main problem arises with health problems. People who sits for a long time infront of screen suffers from issues like backpain, vision and obesity. Furthermore, there are also various psychiological problems which people has to face, who ignore doing a leisure activities. Mental disorder such as, stress, depression and anxiety increases in people who are more indulged at workplace. For instance, an individual will feel lonely and regreted, when he choose to work rather than attending his family ocassion. Besides this, productivity of people mitigate. A person who works more than eight hours would start feeling exaushted and would take more time to complete a specific work.

To conclude, the drawbacks people will face such as, mental issues and phsycial problems when they decide to work overtime, outweighs the advantages of earning impressive financial package.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

Your position is clear from the introduction: although long hours can bring financial and career benefits, you believe the disadvantages are greater. You address both sides and support the negative view with relevant points about physical health, mental wellbeing, family life and reduced productivity. The examples, such as missing a family occasion and receiving promotion for working longer shifts, help make the discussion concrete. This is a well-focused response with ideas extended and supported. To strengthen it further, explain the career-growth point more carefully: the claim that managers promote employees who work long shifts is broad and would benefit from qualification or a more specific example. You could also clarify how reduced productivity affects workers or employers.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The essay has a clear four-part structure: an introduction, a paragraph on advantages, a paragraph on disadvantages and a conclusion. The progression from benefits to the more serious drawbacks is easy to follow, and signposts such as “On the one hand,” “However” and “To conclude” make the argument’s direction clear. Within the disadvantage paragraph, the sequence from physical health to psychological effects and productivity is also logical. Some linking is a little mechanical, however, and several ideas are joined in long sentences, particularly the sentence beginning “Furthermore, there are also various…” Consider separating the mental-health claim from its example and using clearer referencing so that each point connects smoothly without relying mainly on formulaic transitions.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to discuss work and wellbeing, including “financial burden,” “promoted,” “overtime,” “depression” and “productivity.” This gives the response a relevant range, but control is uneven: several spelling errors and unnatural combinations make the wording less precise, as in “curriculam activities,” “demertis,” “take initate,” “infront of screen” and “financial package.” Some choices also do not express the intended meaning naturally, such as “productivity…mitigate” and “indulged at workplace.” Aim to learn common collocations as complete phrases and check spelling carefully. More precise wording would help you express the same ideas clearly and avoid awkward or confusing phrasing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including conditional structures such as “A person who works more than eight hours would start feeling…” and a relative clause beginning “People who sits…”. The overall meaning is generally understandable, but errors in agreement, articles and sentence construction occur often enough to affect accuracy. For example, “people receives” should use a plural verb, while “People who sits… suffers” needs plural agreement throughout. In “who ignore doing a leisure activities,” the clause and article/plural pattern are not controlled. The sentence about “Mental disorder such as…” also needs a clearer grammatical structure. Practise checking each subject and verb, and build complex sentences around one clearly expressed main clause.

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