Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-19

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

It is better to buy just a few expensive clothes, rather than lots of cheaper clothes.

Do you agree or disagree?

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

In this cutting edge era, everyone prefers to wear a new and different cloths everyday but some people think that individuals should not buy various cheaper clothes as less expensive cloths would be good option for them. In my opinion, i disagree with this statement because of some reasons that i will explain in upcoming paragraphs.

To begin with, the first and formost reason is everyone cannot afford expensive cloths. For instance individuals who belongs from poor and middle class cannot afford branded cloths .As a result of this it can create discrimination between them. Secondly, sometimes low quality can be found in expensive cloths. To explain it more, if a person buy a expensive cloth and quality is damaged by wearing it in one or two times only so it can result into wastage of money. Instead if person buy cheap cloths and it have quality issues so he\ she can buy again with no regret.

In addition to this, in this modern era, everyone wants to wear one cloth just one time they do not want to repeat the cloths. so, spending on luxury cloths is not a good idea just for one time wear. people can buy a lot of cheaper cloths in that money and they can wear different cloths everyday according to the trend. However, nowadays fashion changes quickly and cheaper cloths allow people to follow the trend without spending too much on that.

In conclusion, i think that people should buy cheaper cloths instead of buying luxury ones according to today's trend becuase it allow them not only to follow trend but also create a lot of option for them and can be affordable for all without ant discrimation.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student addresses the task by stating a clear position of disagreement with the statement in the introduction and maintaining this viewpoint throughout the response. Relevant ideas are presented to support the argument, such as affordability, economic disparity, and changing fashion trends. However, some ideas are slightly under-developed or contradictory; for instance, the assertion that expensive clothes can also suffer from poor quality is introduced but not fully explained within a coherent line of argument. The conclusion also directly reverses the student's stated position in the introduction—claiming 'people should buy cheaper cloths instead of buying luxury ones'—which creates confusion regarding the final stance. Nevertheless, all parts of the prompt are addressed, placing this performance at Band 5.5.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response is organized into clear paragraphs, starting with an introduction, followed by body paragraphs, and concluding with a final summary. Cohesive devices are employed, such as 'To begin with', 'Secondly', 'In addition to this', and 'In conclusion', to guide the reader through the text. However, referencing and logical progression are occasionally flawed, particularly in the conclusion where the writer contradicts the thesis statement presented in the first paragraph. Furthermore, internal paragraph cohesion is sometimes mechanical, and punctuation issues regarding spacing (such as double spaces and lack of spaces after commas) detract from the overall flow. These features align with the Band 5.5 descriptor, showing basic organization and paragraphing, but with faulty referencing and progression.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is generally adequate for the task, allowing the student to convey basic ideas about fashion, trends, and affordability (e.g., 'cutting edge era', 'discrimination', 'wastage of money', 'trend'). However, there is a very high frequency of spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text. Most notably, the word 'clothes' is repeatedly misspelled as 'cloths' (e.g., 'different cloths everyday', 'expensive cloths'). Other inaccuracies include repetitive phrasing and lexical slips such as 'first and formost', 'one cloth just one time', and 'without ant discrimation'. The range of vocabulary is limited and mechanical, with noticeable errors causing occasional difficulty and demonstrating characteristics of Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures (e.g., 'if a person buy a expensive cloth and quality is damaged...'). However, grammatical accuracy is weak, featuring frequent errors in subject-verb agreement and article usage (e.g., 'everyone prefers to wear a new and different cloths', 'if person buy cheap cloths and it have quality issues'). There are also recurring punctuation and capitalization issues, such as lowercase 'i' used as a personal pronoun ('i disagree', 'i think'), and spacing errors around punctuation marks. While simple sentences are generally understandable, complex structures are frequently faulty. This performance sits firmly at Band 5.0.

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