Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-14

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 5.5)

It is an irrefutable fact that human being is a social animal and for a prosperous and healthy life people should socialise with each other more frequently. Some individuals believe that it would be a great for work colleagues if they hang out after work in the evenings and during the weekends, while other think it's more important to keep work and social life entirely separate from each other. However, I agree with the latter statement and this essay will analyze both the views and my opinion with the help of suitable examples.

To start with, by keeping both work and social life apart from each other a healthy work life balance could be maintained. An individual can give time to his hobbies or other things which helps him/her to recharge and unwind thereself. Furthermore, it also helps a person to keep them sane and full og energy as spending time around work colleagues often keep a person anxious and reserve. For example, numerous studies have shown that worker who pursue their hobbies after work perform much better at any given day and have a more resilient to stress and mental illness.

Moreover, it helps to maintain to privacy and spend quality time with their families. Nowadays, people are not spending enough time with their loved ones and eventually lead to arguments and broken relationships. Also, by opting to spending leisure time in other activities helps to avoid workplace politics.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both views on socialising with colleagues and clearly stating a personal opinion in the introduction. Ideas are generally relevant, such as work-life balance and avoiding workplace politics, but they suffer from under-development and lack specific, well-supported examples. The example regarding studies showing that workers perform better is too vague. Furthermore, the length requirement has not been met; the response contains only 240 words, which is 10 words short of the 250-word minimum. Consequently, the score is capped due to under-length in addition to the limited development of ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay has a basic organizational structure with an introduction and body paragraphs. However, paragraphing and overall progression are flawed. The third paragraph is extremely brief and merges distinct ideas without adequate development or cohesive linking. Cohesive devices are sometimes used, but referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the sentence 'Nowadays, people are not spending enough time with their loved ones and eventually lead to arguments', where the subject of the verb is missing. Overall, the arrangement is somewhat disjointed, fitting the criteria for a band 5.5.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'irrefutable fact', 'prosperous', and 'workplace politics'. However, there are notable lexical errors and awkward collocations throughout the text. Examples include 'human being is a social animal' (missing article), 'great for work colleagues if they hang out' (unnatural phrasing), 'keep a person anxious and reserve' (should be 'reserved'), and 'keep them sane and full og energy' (spelling error). These errors do not completely impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score to a solid 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several noticeable errors, such as 'human being is a social animal' (singular countable noun used without an article or pluralization), 'other think it\'s more important' (subject-verb agreement), 'unwind thereself' (incorrect reflexive pronoun), and 'worker who pursue' (pluralization error). Additionally, punctuation and preposition choices occasionally falter. While the meaning is generally communicated, the frequency of basic and complex errors keeps the score at a 5.5.

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