Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-09

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)

Some individuals believe that spending time with coworkers, ouside the working hours is a beneficial approach. Whereas, others argue to maintain social and personal life seperately. Although I believe socialising with colleagues after working hours is good way to build relationship, there should be a healthy boundary between personal and professional life.

Gathering after working hours helps to build trust between colleagues. Meetings during evenings and weekends often help to know each other better and also enhance mutual understanding. It positively affects their output at work as it improves their team work and understanding. For example, dinner after stressful busy work day helps to reduce tension between colleagues and a best way to relax and have fun.

On the other side, it is significant to keep personal and professional life seperate. Evening and weekend is the only time when a person can do their household jobs and spend valuable time with family, children and friends. Family time is important to maintain the strong relationship. One have to relax during a day off to cope with work stress and should spare some time to keep the body healthy by doing exercise or by joining gym. For instance, a nurse would prefer to stay at home after long hours shifts instead of going out with colleagues outside working hours.

In conclusion, spending time with colleagues is the best way to understand each other and it improves teamwork. I believe priority should be given to personal life outside the working hours. There should be a healthy boundary between personal and professional life.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You address both views and give a clear position: socialising can strengthen relationships, but personal life should take priority and remain protected by healthy boundaries. The examples about dinner after a stressful day and a nurse wanting to rest are relevant and help illustrate each side. This meets the task well, though the discussion is not equally developed: the benefits of socialising are mainly linked to trust and teamwork, while the reasons for separation include family, rest, and health. Some claims, such as socialising being “the best way” to understand colleagues, would benefit from qualification or further explanation. To strengthen the response, develop the trade-offs more fully and explain how people can balance occasional social events with personal commitments.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, one paragraph for each view, and a conclusion that restates your position. The progression is easy to follow, and signposts such as “On the other side” and “In conclusion” help readers identify the stages of the argument. However, some linking is mechanical, and the opening “Whereas” creates a sentence fragment rather than a smoothly connected contrast. Within paragraphs, ideas sometimes appear as a list—for example, family time, rest, and exercise—without enough explanation of how they connect. Use a wider range of natural transitions and clearer referencing, and build each paragraph around a central point with supporting explanation.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for the topic, including “mutual understanding,” “teamwork,” “valuable time,” and “healthy boundary.” These expressions communicate the main ideas clearly, and you attempt some less common phrasing. However, several word-choice, collocation, and spelling errors reduce precision, including “ouside,” “seperately,” “best way to relax,” and “cope with work stress.” Some phrases are also repetitive, particularly references to “working hours” and “personal and professional life.” Aim to use more natural collocations and check spelling carefully. More precise wording would help distinguish socialising for team-building from simply spending leisure time with colleagues.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including a concession in the introduction and explanatory clauses such as “as it improves their team work.” Most of the meaning remains clear, but some grammatical errors occur. For example, “Whereas, others argue to maintain” is an incomplete construction, “Evening and weekend is” has a subject–verb agreement problem, and “One have to relax” does not agree in number. Articles are also missing in phrases such as “is good way” and “after stressful busy work day.” Review sentence boundaries, agreement, and article use, especially when combining clauses. Greater accuracy across these structures would make the argument smoother.

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