Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-22

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 6.0)

Work-life balance plays a crucial role for every individual in their mental and physical health. Although spending some extra time with your co-workers helps to build good relations with your team, it also causes stress and work load. I personally beleive, there could be a balance between work and personal life. Only occasional meeting after work is sufficient.

On the one side, workers feel more connected with company when they get socialized after work. They get an opportunity to share their personal opinions ans ideas with others. Eventually, it boosts their productivity. For example, company has a target-related work and employees are discussing about it in their leisure time. Thus, it generates more outcomes with more dedication to work. Furthermore, employees can think about other concerning matters of work such as future job prospects, job satisfaction,and their financial rewards. Overall, it helps them to enhance their performance and working environment.

On the other side, employees feels under pressure of work everytime. Since, they are always busy to think about work, they feel stressed and frustrated. They do not get time to pursue their hobbies that makes them upset. For instance, a worker loves to go for daily evening walk, due to after work meetings, he finds it difficult to do his favourite activities. Moreover, workers spend less quality time with their family and friends when they have commitments with their colleagues. Employees feels disconnected with their family and unable to attend any special occasions. Eventually, it effects their family time that becoming them stressed.

To conclude, it is a good idea to spend some extra time with your colleagues but it could be limited and occationally. That will help to balance personal and work life of people.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The student addresses all parts of the task by discussing both views—socialising with colleagues versus keeping work and social life separate—and presents a clear personal opinion. The position is maintained throughout the response, concluding that occasional socialising strikes the right balance. The ideas are generally relevant, but some points lack deeper extension and development. For instance, the paragraph discussing the benefits of socialising touches on productivity and targets, but the examples are somewhat generalized and brief ('company has a target-related work'). Similarly, the counterarguments regarding stress are clear but remain somewhat repetitive. To reach a higher band, the student should provide more fully elaborated, concrete examples and explore the implications of each perspective in greater depth. Overall, the task requirements are adequately fulfilled, earning a solid Band 6.5.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response is organized into four distinct paragraphs with a logical overall progression, moving from the introduction to the two opposing views and a concluding summary. Cohesive devices such as 'On the one side', 'On the other side', 'For example', and 'To conclude' are used to signpost the structure of the essay. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or mechanical. For example, the transition 'Since, they are always busy to think about work...' uses inappropriate punctuation and phrasing, and the pronoun reference in 'that makes them upset' is slightly ambiguous. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct arguments, but the logical links between sentences within paragraphs could be smoother and more varied. Coherence and cohesion align well with the Band 6 descriptors.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, attempting some less common collocations such as 'work-life balance', 'job satisfaction', and 'financial rewards'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward word choices throughout the text, including the spelling error 'beleive' instead of 'believe', 'ans' instead of 'and', and 'occationally' instead of 'occasionally'. Furthermore, phrases like 'generates more outcomes' and 'it effects their family time that becoming them stressed' show unnatural collocation and grammatical interference. While the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the main ideas and communication is not impeded, the frequency of spelling and word-choice errors prevents the response from achieving a higher band. This performance fits comfortably at Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing conditional and dependent clauses such as 'Although spending some extra time with your co-workers helps...' and 'When they get socialized after work'. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several noticeable errors in verb tenses, subject-verb agreement, and prepositions, such as 'employees feels under pressure' (should be 'feel'), 'due to after work meetings' (missing hyphenation and preposition control), and 'it effects their family time that becoming them stressed' (incorrect form 'becoming'). Punctuation is also problematic in places, particularly with unnecessary commas ('satisfaction,and'). Although these errors do not severely impede overall communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent the grammar score from rising above Band 6.0.

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