Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-24

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)

It is widely argued that buying less clothes but of better quality is better than spending money on low-quality apparels. While I acknowledge that expensive clothes can last for a long time, I firmly hold the view that having more clothes can help in staying updated with fashion.

The main justification for my stance is that one get greater variety to style themselves everyday. In other words, if garments are less expensive, they be can easily replaced them with the upcoming trends. To illustrate, an adult ususally prefer to have several clothing items than investing in single expensive outfit as they want to look trendy and fashionable.

Another significant reason is that many people in our country have limited incomes. Therefore, it is often affordable to invest in cheaper clothes. For example, people with less finances have to manage other things as well like food and health. Consequently, they do not have high budget for clothes. Nevertheless, it is also a great idea for teenagers because with age their perfernces and shape changes.

In conclusion, although expensive garments are more dureable, I still believe that with economical and rightly prices garments, one can stay updated with fashion trends and at the same time it saves hard-earned money.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The student addresses the prompt by taking a clear position that buying more cheaper clothes is preferable for fashion and budget reasons. The main ideas are relevant, discussing variety and affordability, but they are somewhat under-developed due to the overall brevity of the essay. More importantly, the response fails the minimum length requirement, containing only 207 words compared to the required 250 words. This under-length impacts the depth of task fulfillment, resulting in a band score of 5.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay is divided into an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion, showing basic paragraphing. There is a logical progression overall, moving from variety to financial constraints. However, cohesive devices and referencing are sometimes faulty or mechanical, as seen in expressions like "one get greater variety to style themselves everyday." Despite these minor slips in cohesion and referencing, the structure remains coherent overall, matching the descriptor for Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, attempting some less common lexical items such as "justification," "dureable," and "economical." However, there are noticeable spelling errors ("apparels," "ususally," "dureable," "rightly") and awkward phrasing like "limited finances" and "perfernces and shape changes." These errors do not seriously impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score to a Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as conditional and concessive clauses ("While I acknowledge that...," "if garments are less expensive, they be can easily replaced..."). However, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly subject-verb agreement and word order issues, such as "one get greater variety" and "they be can easily replaced them." These errors cause occasional difficulty, placing the grammar score at Band 5.0.

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

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