Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-22

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Nowadays many people complain that they have difficulties getting enough sleep. What problems can lack of sleep cause? What can be done about lack of sleep?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

 

Student answer (Band 4.5)

Lack of sleep, insomnia, and other conditions that cause people to have much less hours of sleep (for example, four hours of sleep) can cause many problems. These include tiredness, fatigue, a shifted Circadian rhythm, as well as many microsleeps. Things that can be done about lack of sleep and other related conditions are:

Adjusting bedtime can do a lot about lack of sleep. Sleeping at 9 P.M. can give you the full eight hours of sleep. Also, caffeine is not to be ingested past 6 P.M., as this can cause insomnia due to lack of fatigue.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The student attempts to address both parts of the prompt, mentioning problems caused by lack of sleep, such as tiredness and a shifted Circadian rhythm, and offering solutions like adjusting bedtime and managing caffeine intake. However, the response is severely underdeveloped and falls drastically short of the 250-word minimum, containing only 97 words. Because of this extreme under-length and lack of extended support or detailed examples, the content remains very basic and fails to fully explore the complexities of the topic, resulting in a low score for task achievement.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.5

The text is structured with an introductory outline followed by a brief discussion on solutions. However, the formatting is extremely choppy, relying heavily on bullet-like transitions and disjointed sentences such as 'Things that can be done about lack of sleep and other related conditions are:' followed by disconnected points. Paragraphing is inadequate for an essay format, and cohesive devices are minimal. Overall progression is lacking due to the brevity of the response, though the main ideas are at least sequentially stated.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates a basic working vocabulary with appropriate topic-specific terms like 'insomnia', 'Circadian rhythm', 'microsleeps', and 'caffeine'. While these terms are relevant, the range is severely limited due to the overall length of the text. There are no major spelling errors, and the vocabulary used is mostly natural in context, such as 'ingested past 6 P.M.', but the overall lexical footprint is too sparse to demonstrate flexibility or a wide range.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student uses a mix of simple and moderately complex structures, such as 'Adjusting bedtime can do a lot about lack of sleep.' and 'Sleeping at 9 P.M. can give you the full eight hours of sleep.' Grammatical accuracy is generally acceptable for the simple sentences produced, with few glaring errors aside from slightly awkward phrasing like 'much less hours of sleep' instead of 'fewer hours'. However, the extremely limited range of grammatical structures prevents the response from achieving a higher band.

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

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