Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-05

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)

People have been very selective in recent years. They are not willing to spend massive amount on expensive clothes. Despite the quality of materials, they prefer to see their financial capabilities and interests. They often say that when the same products are available in cheaper price then why to spend more money. In addition, fashion is continuously changing and what is considered as good today would be outdated today. Therefore, I inclined to the option of choosing inexpensive clothing. This essay will discuss developments in detail.

To begin, fashion industry is continuously changing the trends. They employee well known people to promote their products. They may wear that costume or clothing in order to advertising clothes. They often do it for several brands to earn money. This action spread a message in the society that fashion that is in trend today would definitely be replaced by another ones in the future. Therefore, spending huge amount on one costume would not be an ideal idea. For example, Akshay kumar and Ranbeer Kapoor used to promote many brand and every six months, they comes up with different fashion which has change the mindset in people over the time in India.

On the other hand, quality used to plays a vital role in the past. However, constant changes in fashion does not allow people to buy expensive clothes. Young people often loose their confidence by wearing the same style repeteadly and they find it very boring over the period of time. Therefore, I believe that choosing cheaper option is reliable options.

To sum up, although expensive products can be used several times, it is not worthful to have it now due to constant change. It may impact negatively on teenagers mindset. They often feel bored by having the same outfit and they may also have detrimental effects on them.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt regarding whether to buy fewer expensive clothes or more cheap ones, presenting a clear personal position that inexpensive clothing is preferable. However, the development of ideas is limited and somewhat repetitive. For instance, the argument that fashion changes quickly is raised in the introduction and repeated throughout the body paragraphs without sufficient extension or detailed support. While examples like the mention of Indian actors are included, they are somewhat superficial and lack clear elaboration to fully support the argument. To move to a higher level, the writer needs to provide fully developed ideas with deeper analysis and more robust, well-explained examples rather than restating the same underlying points.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays some overall organization with clear paragraph breaks and basic cohesive devices such as 'To begin', 'On the other hand', and 'To sum up'. However, there is a lack of clear overall progression, and the transitions between sentences can feel mechanical or abrupt. Pronoun referencing is occasionally unclear, such as the ambiguous use of 'They' in the second paragraph, where it shifts confusingly between the fashion industry, celebrities, and consumers. Cohesive devices are sometimes inaccurate or repetitive. To achieve a higher band, the writer must ensure that logical links between sentences and paragraphs are smoother and that referencing is consistently precise to guide the reader seamlessly through the argument.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is minimally adequate for the task, providing a sufficient range to express basic opinions such as 'financial capabilities', 'fashion industry', and 'detrimental effects'. However, there are noticeable limitations and inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'available in cheaper price' instead of 'at a cheaper price', 'massive amount' instead of 'a massive amount', and 'worthful' instead of 'worthwhile'. Spelling and word form errors, such as 'repeteadly' and 'loose' instead of 'lose', occur throughout the text. To improve lexical scoring, the writer should incorporate less common lexical items with greater precision and pay closer attention to natural collocations and word forms.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer demonstrates a limited range of grammatical structures, relying heavily on simple sentences alongside frequent attempts at complex forms that are often faulty. There are persistent errors in verb forms, tenses, subject-verb agreement, and articles, such as 'fashion industry is continuously changing' missing a determiner, 'every six months, they comes up' with a subject-verb agreement error, and 'what is considered as good today would be outdated today' showing awkward phrasing. Punctuation and preposition usage within grammatical patterns also show frequent inaccuracies that occasionally cause difficulty for the reader. To reach a higher band, the writer needs to produce a greater variety of error-free complex sentences and maintain tighter control over basic grammatical rules.

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