Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-10-31

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)

In this competitive era, busy schedules like prolonged working hours of corporate employees often leaves them with no or very little spare time for leisure activities. This can lead to monotonous life , develop depression and tiredness over long term with few financial advantages. From my perspective,disadvantages of this trend certainly outweigh its advantages.

Major advantages of long hours working are increased productivity , better pay and inturn increased economic growth. As an individual who spares more time performing his job duties , it will provide him with better output and as a result increase his pay and higher chances of earning bonus with promotion.For example, an employee who diverts 12 hours a day designing a website can certainly provide better results in comparison to one's alloting 8 hours to this task. So financial benefit is the major benefit of increased working hours.

On contrary, if a person maintaines work life balance that is dedicating fix number of hours to work and rest for their hobbies like gardening , reading or playing with kids, it will boost their sense of satisfaction. It is often proved that mind needs certain amount of enjoyment which comes from doing activities which we love doing. Such as dopamine which is certain chemical that is released by participating in activities of self pleasure which is almost essential to keep mind healthy. Additionally there are chances of getting work related anxiety and developing pressure often leading to suicide in certain cases.

Overall, advantages in terms of growth of mind , body proves to be more essential in long term run outweigh the financial and economic benefit by working extra.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

Your position is clear: you argue that the disadvantages of long working hours outweigh the financial and economic benefits. You address both sides, giving productivity, pay and promotion as advantages, then discussing satisfaction, mental health and family or leisure activities as counterpoints. The website-design example helps illustrate the productivity claim. This meets the task well, but some ideas are less fully developed than others: the link between longer hours and better output is asserted rather than qualified, and the claims about dopamine and suicide need clearer explanation or support. To strengthen the response, explain more precisely how limited leisure affects wellbeing and why those effects outweigh the financial gains over time.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction states your view, separate paragraphs consider advantages and disadvantages, and the conclusion restates your position. This gives the reader a coherent route through the argument. You also use signposting such as “For example,” “Additionally” and “Overall.” However, some connections are mechanical or unclear. “On contrary” does not smoothly signal the shift, and the final paragraph refers to “growth of mind, body” without clearly linking that idea to the preceding discussion. Within the disadvantages paragraph, the move from hobbies to dopamine and then suicide is abrupt. Use clearer transitions and develop one point at a time so the progression feels more continuous.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range for the topic, including phrases such as “work life balance,” “economic growth,” “work-related anxiety” and “financial benefit.” These help communicate the main ideas, and attempts at more formal vocabulary are evident. Some word choices and collocations are inaccurate or awkward, however, as in “monotonous life,” “spares more time performing his job duties,” “diverts 12 hours” and “growth of mind, body.” There are also spelling and form issues, including “maintaines” and “alloting.” These do not prevent understanding, but they reduce precision and naturalness. Aim for standard collocations such as “spend more time on work,” “allocate 12 hours to a task” and “mental and physical wellbeing,” and check spelling carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including a conditional structure (“if a person…”) and a relative clause (“which comes from doing activities…”). The main argument remains understandable, but some errors in agreement, articles, sentence construction and punctuation make the writing less controlled. For example, “busy schedules… often leaves” should use a plural verb, while “if a person maintaines” also needs subject–verb agreement. The sentence beginning “Such as dopamine” is a fragment, and the opening sentence has an unclear construction around “This can lead to.” Commas and spaces are also inconsistently handled. Review agreement and sentence boundaries, and make sure each sentence has a complete main clause.

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