Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-08-15

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people think that it’s a good idea to socialise with work colleagues during evenings and weekends. Other people think it’s important to keep working life completely separate from social life.

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

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

Student answer (Band 6.5)

In this fast-paced era, individuals need to balance their relationships and work-life balance. Some segments of society consider that people need to meet their co-workers after business hours to improve their connections, while others believe that it has a detrimental impact on social life. In this essay, I will explain both sides of the view before representing my own beliefs.

On the one hand, arranging a meeting with colleagues after business hours would be considered a wise decision because it fosters an emotional connection and establishes strong bonding between professionals. To elaborate on it, people can share their personal pressing matters, which is not possible in the workplace, and it helps to reduce stress and gain help during official hours. For instance, nowadays, many companies prefer to arrange short trips after some interval to enhance a bond between their employees. Thus, it provides a positive work environment and gives a work-life balance and support among workers.

Moving towards the next opinion, many mankind believes that it may have a negative impact on a person's life. If they spend their extra time with their coworkers will ruin their work-life balance. Moreover, many times people try to humiliate you if you share some secrets of your life with them, which creates a detrimental impact on your life.

To explain it, as an employee, they already share their most precious hours with the company and staff. If they spend additional hours with them will affect their personal relationship, which are more crucial. To illustrate, Many studies have proven that 80% of relationships are destroyed because of poor work-life balance. Therefore, after duty time, people should spend the remaining time with their family because they also want a person's support and time.

To recapitulate, while people should spend extra time with colleagues to improve their relationships and reduce their stress levels during work, I personally believe that work-life balance should be more important, and after attending job duties, the remaining time should be spent with family, which will boost relations within family members and also reduce the risk of threats.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses both sides of the argument and provides a clear personal opinion in the introduction and conclusion. The ideas are relevant, such as the benefits of team bonding versus the importance of family time. However, some arguments are slightly under-developed; for example, the claim that '80% of relationships are destroyed' lacks context and feels like an over-generalisation. The position is consistent throughout, but the development of the second body paragraph could be more nuanced to reach a higher band. Overall, the task requirements are well met.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is logically organised with a clear introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the two viewpoints. Cohesive devices such as 'On the one hand', 'Moving towards the next opinion', and 'To recapitulate' are used to guide the reader. However, some transitions are slightly mechanical or awkward, such as 'Moving towards the next opinion, many mankind believes'. Additionally, some referencing is slightly unclear, such as the use of 'they' in the second paragraph, which occasionally creates ambiguity regarding whether the subject is the employee or the coworker.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The range of vocabulary is generally adequate for the task. You use some good collocations like 'fast-paced era', 'detrimental impact', and 'fosters an emotional connection'. However, there are some noticeable errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'many mankind believes' (incorrect usage of 'mankind') and 'risk of threats' (which is vague and unnatural in this context). While the vocabulary is sufficient to convey your meaning clearly, it lacks the precision and flexibility required for a higher band score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors that occur throughout the text, such as 'If they spend their extra time... will ruin' (missing subject or incorrect verb form) and 'If they spend additional hours with them will affect' (incorrect sentence structure). Additionally, there are minor errors with articles and pluralisation, such as 'a work-life balance' and 'between their employees'. While these errors do not impede communication, they are frequent enough to prevent a higher score. Focusing on subject-verb agreement and sentence construction will help improve your accuracy.

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

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