Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-07

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 consideres by some individuals that spending a quality of evenings and weekends time with work colleagues is a good way to socialise, while othes think that keep personal and professional life separate is also important. I am in favour of former view, where as both have their own importance such as spending time with work friends help to relief from stress. However, according to other view, conflicts may occur at workplce.

On the one side, It is a good idea to spend time with work colleagues to get rid from stress of whole day or a week via spending evenings and weekends together. Due to hectic schedule, working people go through regular day with following routine like come to work and go home back forth. They need leisure time after work to spend with friends to relax themselves. Conseuently, they would grow not only in their professional but also in personal life.

However, If work friends start socialising together, conflicts may occur at workplace. Because they would be spend some time together while taking about work or workplace. For example, If they are talking about the performance of someone who is not present at the moment but a friend of that person is present with you. Next day, they will start discussion about yesterday's conversation then workplace conflict starts between employees. As a result, relationships at work may broke,a nd this will put impact on productivity.

In conclusion, as per my opinion, It is a good way to relax by spending time with work friends. Despite having bad impact on workplace relationships, there is various postives in favour of spending time with work colleagues such as stress relief.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both views and state a clear preference for socialising with colleagues, especially in the opening and conclusion. The points about relieving stress and the risk of workplace conflict are relevant, and the example of discussing an absent colleague helps illustrate the second view. However, the two sides are not developed equally: the case for keeping work and social life separate is mainly reduced to one possible conflict, without explaining how boundaries might protect privacy or reduce pressure. The benefits are also asserted rather than fully explained; for instance, the link between leisure time and growth in both personal and professional life needs clarification. Develop each view with a fuller explanation and a specific, well-connected example.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, a paragraph for each view, and a conclusion. The progression from the benefits of socialising to possible conflict is generally easy to follow, and signposts such as “On the one side,” “However,” and “In conclusion” help identify the stages of the argument. At times, though, cohesion is mechanical or unclear. The opening sentence contains several ideas at once, and “both have their own importance” does not clearly identify what “both” refers to. The example’s sequence from a conversation to a conflict could also be linked more explicitly. Use clearer topic sentences and refer back to ideas precisely, rather than relying mainly on formulaic transitions.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “hectic schedule,” “leisure time,” “workplace conflict,” and “productivity.” These choices show an attempt to discuss both the personal benefits and professional risks. However, inaccurate word choice, collocation, and spelling are noticeable and sometimes make the meaning less natural: “spending a quality of evenings,” “get rid from stress,” and “put impact on productivity” are not idiomatic. There are also misspellings such as “consideres,” “oth es,” and “postives.” Aim for accurate, natural combinations and check spelling carefully. A more controlled range of phrases such as “unwind after work” and “damage working relationships” would make the argument clearer and more precise.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including a conditional structure in “If work friends start socialising together, conflicts may occur” and a relative clause in “someone who is not present.” This gives the response some variety, but errors in sentence construction and verb forms are frequent enough to affect clarity. For example, “they would be spend some time” has an incorrect verb form, while “relationships at work may broke” uses the wrong form after “may.” There are also problems with agreement and sentence boundaries, as in “there is various positives,” and punctuation is inconsistent around sentence openings and commas. Practise accurate modal patterns (“may break”), subject–verb agreement, and complete sentence structures before adding more complex clauses.

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