Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-08-09

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)

In the contemporary era, sports have been increased significantly. It has become trend for hiring a personal fitness trainer instead of playing sports and join in exercise classes. While this trend offers several advantages it also presents some disadvantages. It has both negative and positive development.

One of the main advantages is that Trainers have a qualification in their profession. For instance, they know about the exercise benefits, duration and intensity. This helps people to protect from overuse of their body muscles and prevent from injury. They have knowledge how to train athlete and what exercises are crucial for maintain for body stamina. They can set a timetable that helps get a rest after enough training. This schedule helps them to reach their goals and maintain a discipline in their life. Furthermore, trainers have ability to encourage them towards their achievements and help to stay on the right path.

This helps make informed decisions about their career.

Despite its merits it also has some demerits. People cannot to be satisfied with their efforts. For example, people are busier in their hectic schedule, and they do not have enough time for exercise. This leads to a sedentary lifestyle that cause health issues. They do not want to leave their comfort zone and results a negative effect on them. Therefore, people have not enough knowledge regarding right technique of exercises which causes an injury. They neglect these injuries which become after some time.

In Conclusion, although both sides have their own merits and negative consequences. I believe that both aspects should be considered carefully.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: the reasons for hiring personal trainers and the evaluation of whether this is a positive or negative development. However, the development of ideas is somewhat uneven. While the benefits of trainers are explained reasonably well, the discussion on the negative aspects is less focused and includes irrelevant points, such as the mention of 'career decisions,' which does not relate to the topic of fitness. The position is stated in the introduction but remains somewhat neutral throughout, lacking a strong, clear stance. To improve, ensure that every point made directly supports the prompt and provides more specific, logical examples to justify your arguments.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organised into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. However, the use of cohesive devices is often mechanical or inaccurate. For example, the transition 'Despite its merits it also has some demerits' is used, but the subsequent paragraph discusses general sedentary lifestyle issues rather than the specific downsides of hiring a personal trainer. Additionally, some sentences are disjointed, such as 'This helps make informed decisions about their career,' which appears abruptly. Improving the flow between sentences and ensuring that each paragraph has a clear, singular focus would significantly enhance the coherence of your writing.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks the precision and range required for a higher band. You rely on basic phrasing such as 'sports have been increased' and 'have ability to encourage.' There are also some awkward collocations, such as 'overuse of their body muscles' and 'maintain for body stamina.' To reach a higher band, you should aim to use more sophisticated vocabulary and idiomatic expressions, such as 'tailored fitness regimes' or 'sedentary lifestyle,' while ensuring that words are used in their correct grammatical context.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede clarity. Common issues include subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'sports have been increased,' 'results a negative effect'), missing articles, and incorrect verb forms (e.g., 'People cannot to be satisfied'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with comma usage. While the meaning is generally understandable, the high frequency of errors in basic sentence construction prevents the essay from reaching a higher band. Focusing on proofreading for subject-verb agreement and verb patterns would be highly beneficial.

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

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