Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-24
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
In many countries today, crime novels and TV crime dramas are becoming more and more popular. Why do you think these books and TV shows are popular? What is your opinion of crime fiction and TV crime dramas?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Student answer (Band 4.5)
Nowadays, criminal stories and movies or shows that includes crime fiction are becoming famous in different countries. In my opinion, young population likes to watch crime stories rather than science fiction or romantic stories. That is the reason for the popularity of crime stories in many countries. I believe, watching crime fiction and reading novels give us an idea about cruelity between people in this world.
Younger population incline towards watching crime TV shows as they are interested and intensive to watch. Reading novels are quite boring in this digital world. So younger population likes to read crime stories as the end of the story is quite interesting.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 4.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 4.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 4.0 |
| Overall | 4.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0
The response fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 250 words, containing only 108 words. Consequently, the task is addressed only partially, and the ideas presented are severely under-developed. While the student attempts to answer both parts of the prompt regarding the popularity and their personal opinion on crime fiction, the explanations are superficial. For instance, the statement 'watching crime fiction and reading novels give us an idea about cruelity between people' is not adequately expanded with clear examples or thorough reasoning. Due to the significant under-length penalty and limited development of ideas, this performance aligns with Band 4.0 descriptors.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0
The essay displays some basic organisation, dividing the thoughts into an introduction and a short body paragraph. However, the overall progression is weak due to the brevity of the text. Cohesive devices are minimal and sometimes repetitive or awkward, such as the frequent transitions like 'Nowadays' and 'So younger population'. Paragraphing is not used sufficiently and appropriately, as the body paragraph lumps multiple ideas together rather than developing them logically. Referencing is occasionally unclear, such as 'That is the reason for the popularity'. These features reflect Band 5.0 for Coherence and Cohesion.
Lexical Resource: Band 4.0
The student uses a limited and repetitive range of vocabulary, such as repeating 'young population' and 'crime stories' multiple times. There are noticeable lexical errors and inappropriate word choices, such as 'criminal stories' instead of 'crime stories', 'includes crime fiction' instead of 'feature crime fiction', and spelling/word formation issues like 'cruelity' (cruelty) and 'intensive' (intense). These errors cause some difficulty for the reader and reflect a restricted vocabulary, placing the response firmly at Band 4.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.0
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'Younger population incline towards watching crime TV shows as they are interested and intensive to watch.' However, there are frequent grammatical errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ('movies or shows that includes', 'young population likes'), incorrect verb forms ('Reading novels are quite boring'), and awkward phrasing. These errors frequently cause strain and difficulty for the reader, matching the criteria for a Band 4.0 score.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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