Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-17

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 6.5)

It is common these days for many people to complain of sleeping less. The primary reason for this is because people work more than they do before. Consequently, consistent lack of sleep can cause fatigue and poor health but this can be addressed by working remotely and also getting professional help.

Most people work for long hours at their job because of more responsibilities. Some even switch between two or more jobs for more income and this leaves them with little time to rest. It is usually recommended to have atleast eight hours of sleep every day and failure to achieve that can cause fatigue and poor performance. This is because sleep is therapeutic and during sleep, the body goes into repair and refresh. Consequently, this can affect productivity at work.

Furthermore, not having adequate sleep can impact the immunity. It makes one susceptible to infections and being unhealthy. Proper sleep improves cognition and overall wellbeing.

However, insomnia can be addressed by adjusting to modern life and incorporating technology. Remote work can help to reduce the time people spend in traffic, especially in cities like Lagos where people can spend hours in traffic. Working from home can mitigate this.

Additionally, seeking professional help is advisable. There are medications that are available for curing insomnia and engaging professionals in that field will help to know the suitable ones.

In conclusion, people do not rest as much as they do in the past and this is due to the necessity of modern life and roles. Not having enough sleep can impact health and have deleterious effect on productivity. Nonetheless, seeking help and working remotely can help mitigate it.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response addresses both parts of the question and maintains a clear overall position: insufficient sleep harms health and work performance, while remote work and professional support may help. The discussion of fatigue, reduced productivity and weakened immunity is relevant, and the Lagos traffic example makes the remote-work suggestion concrete. This meets the task well, but the two parts are not equally developed. The effects are explained more fully than the proposed solutions; for example, medication is mentioned without discussing other practical measures or the need for medical guidance. The opening also attributes the problem mainly to longer working hours, which narrows the range of possible causes. Develop each solution with a clear explanation of how it addresses sleep difficulties.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The essay has a clear overall structure, with an introduction, separate paragraphs on effects and solutions, and a conclusion that restates the main points. Linking expressions such as “Consequently,” “Furthermore,” and “Additionally” help signal relationships between ideas. However, some connections feel mechanical or are not fully logical: “However” introduces solutions after the effects, although the contrast is not explicit, and “This is because” links sleep’s restorative role to fatigue without making the reasoning entirely clear. The conclusion repeats the main points rather than drawing them together. Use transitions that express the precise relationship between ideas, and make each paragraph progress from a claim to explanation and example.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

There is an adequate range of vocabulary for the topic, including “fatigue,” “susceptible to infections,” “cognition,” “mitigate,” and “deleterious effect.” These choices show an attempt to use more formal and less common language, and the meaning is generally clear. Some phrasing is imprecise or unnatural, however: “sleeping less” is less direct than describing insufficient sleep, “the body goes into repair and refresh” is awkward, and “medications … for curing insomnia” overstates what treatment can do. “Adjusting to modern life” is also vague in the context of solutions. Aim for accurate collocations and precise wording, especially when discussing health. For example, describe sleep as allowing the body to repair itself and refer to treatment for insomnia rather than a cure.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

The response uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including subordinate clauses (“because people work more than they do before”) and conditional phrasing (“failure to achieve that can cause fatigue”). Most sentences are understandable, and errors rarely obstruct the message. Some grammatical inaccuracies remain. In “people work more than they do before,” the comparison is awkwardly formed; “people work longer hours than they did in the past” would be clearer. “The body goes into repair and refresh” has an incomplete grammatical construction, while “have deleterious effect” needs an article or plural form. There is also a comma splice in “fatigue and poor health but this can be addressed,” where punctuation or a conjunction structure should be revised. Check articles, comparisons and sentence boundaries during editing.

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