Band 7.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-04

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 7.0)

While many people believe that on weekends and evenings, spending time with their co-workers is beneficial, whereas, others support the idea of keeping the personal and professional life different. From my perspective, although going out with workplace friends plays a significant role in developing a strong connection with them, the after working hours are meant to be specifically for family or personal time and should not be overlapped with professional bonding time.

One of the major reasons why individuals should allocate some quality time with their workplace friends is for establishing a strong connection. By doing outing with co-workers, one can develop a deep understanding with them, making it easier to have interaction and collaboration at a professional set up. To cite an example, the people who work in a restaurant usually have to work in teams which solely happens if they are in good terms with each other. Therefore, in order to get to that comfortable working environment, they have to have a connection with each other which comes from spending some quality time.

On the contrary, the main reason behind keeping a separate work and personal life is a healthy work-life balance. In the modern era of competition, everyone has challenging schedules and long working hours, resulting in no family or alone time. As a result of which not only they tend to start facing stress and depression issues but it also introduces a gap between them and their family members. Thus, it is crucial for everyone to have a boundary between their work and personal life to maintain a proper work-life balance.

Taking everything into account, I ultimately conclude that despite how vital is the friends time for an individual for building a strengthen bond, the significances of isolating personal and professional life cannot be ignored.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, discussing both viewpoints and providing a clear personal opinion in the introduction and conclusion. The ideas are relevant and generally well-developed. For instance, the argument regarding team cohesion in a restaurant setting provides a concrete example to support the first view. The second view is also supported by logical reasoning about work-life balance and stress. However, the development is somewhat brief, and the conclusion could be more nuanced to fully reflect the complexity of the topic. Overall, the response meets the requirements for a Band 7, as the position is clear throughout and the main ideas are extended and supported.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The essay is logically organized with a clear progression of ideas. Each paragraph has a central theme, and the transition between paragraphs is generally smooth. Cohesive devices such as 'One of the major reasons', 'On the contrary', and 'Taking everything into account' are used effectively to guide the reader. However, there are minor issues with sentence-level cohesion, such as the slightly awkward phrasing in the opening sentence ('While... whereas...'). Despite these minor mechanical issues, the paragraphing is appropriate and the overall structure is coherent, justifying a Band 7 score.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

The student demonstrates a sufficient range of vocabulary to discuss the topic with some precision. Phrases like 'allocate some quality time', 'professional set up', and 'work-life balance' are used appropriately. There are some minor inaccuracies in collocation and word choice, such as 'doing outing' (should be 'going on outings') and 'building a strengthen bond' (should be 'building a strong bond'). While the vocabulary is adequate for the task and allows for some flexibility, it does not consistently reach the level of sophistication required for a higher band. The errors do not impede communication.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There is evidence of good control over grammar, but several errors persist. For example, the opening sentence contains a redundant 'whereas' after 'While'. There are also minor errors in article usage and verb forms, such as 'the people who work' (unnecessary 'the') and 'the significances of isolating' (should be 'the significance'). While the student attempts complex structures, these occasional errors prevent the response from reaching a higher band. The majority of sentences are clear, and the errors do not cause difficulty for the reader.

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

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