Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-07-28

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In some countries, more and more people are hiring a personal fitness trainer, rather than playing sports or doing exercise classes. What are the reasons for this? Is this a positive or a negative development?

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

I used believe that playing sports regularly is the best activity to keep one physically and mentally active. My father took membership of a sports complex near my home that offered variety of activities including walking track, gym, badminton court, football stadium. When i was a child, I preferred playing badminton with my friends in evening regularly for 1 hour in that sports complex. My parents preferred walking while I was playing badminton.

Considering the past time people were not aware of personal fitness trainer, in fact they used to go to gym and do few exercises that they were aware of. In comparison to the present situation, people are becoming more consicous about their physique and health.

I was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome recently. I had to loose weight, so i joined a gym and hired personal trainer for that specific reason. Honestly speaking it helped me a lot as I had lost almost 8 kgs weight in 2 months duration. Before being diagnosed with this condition i also did gym without personal trainer i was not able to loose more than 2 kgs in 2 months. In my opinion, hiring a personal trainer helped me to reduce weight and to overcome my disease too. Personal fitness trainer guided me so well regarding which exercises i had to do and which one i need to avoid. Earlier i was unaware of this and i was practicing all those exercises that i need to avoid in this specific condition.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt but lacks sufficient depth and structure. While you identify reasons for hiring a trainer (personal health goals, medical conditions), the essay fails to provide a balanced discussion on whether this is a positive or negative development. The response is heavily anecdotal, focusing almost exclusively on your personal experience with PCOS rather than exploring broader societal trends. To improve, you must move beyond personal narrative and provide a more analytical, objective discussion that covers both sides of the argument. The conclusion is also missing, which is a significant requirement for a Task 2 essay.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay lacks a clear structure. It begins with a personal anecdote about childhood, moves to a brief comparison of past and present, and then focuses on your medical history. There is no clear paragraphing to separate the reasons from the evaluation of the trend. Cohesive devices are largely absent, making the flow between ideas feel disjointed. For example, the transition from your father's gym membership to your own medical diagnosis is abrupt. To improve, use clear topic sentences for each paragraph and employ linking words like 'furthermore', 'consequently', or 'on the other hand' to guide the reader through your arguments.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

Your vocabulary is generally functional but limited. You use basic terms like 'good', 'helped', and 'aware'. There are some errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'took membership' (should be 'became a member' or 'joined') and 'loose weight' (should be 'lose weight'). While you successfully use some topic-specific vocabulary like 'polycystic ovarian syndrome' and 'physique', the overall range is not sufficient to demonstrate the flexibility required for higher bands. Focus on learning collocations related to health and fitness, such as 'tailored exercise regimen' or 'professional guidance'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text that occasionally impede clarity. Common issues include missing articles ('the' before 'evening', 'a' before 'personal trainer'), incorrect verb tenses ('I used believe' instead of 'I used to believe'), and punctuation errors. Sentence structures are mostly simple or compound; there is a lack of complex sentence structures, such as conditional clauses or relative clauses, which are necessary for a higher score. You should work on subject-verb agreement and ensure that you proofread for basic errors like the confusion between 'loose' and 'lose'.

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