Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-31

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)

Some people like to get socialise with work colleagues and enjoy spendins their off-time and weekends with them. Whereas some individuals prefer to keep their personal life distanced from their professional life. In my oppinion, creating personal bonds with the co-workers and spending quality time with them is good. Because, working around people whom we know personally is much better than working with strangers.

Workplace is a place where people often feel low and stressed. To avoid such feeling people make friends. So that, they wont feel loneliness while working. People like to plan things on weekends with their co-workers as they no longer consider them strangers. Additionally, when we work as full time employee, we had to spent most of our time in office. So, the people around us in office becomes our friend and this might be the reason why we like to spent evenings and weekends with them. For example, Employees that are stressed-out with their workload. Enjoy gossiping about their boss and clients with their colleagues in free time that they get in evenings or on weekends.

On the other hand, their are people who avoid mixing their professional life with private life. Because, don't like to carry any professional talks or burden to their home. They feel to stay away from co-workers in free time, not because they don't like socialising, but maybe because they don't want to discuss things related to work anymore. They might feel good to enjoy their weekends with their family members instead of work colleagues. For instance, Individuals who like to spent time with their family and friends are comfortable to share their work issues with close ones.

In conclusion, getting socialise with co-workers in free time can help an individual emotionally and create support in workplace. However, others may not like it because they prefer family and friends out-side the office more over work colleagues.

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 perspectives and state your own view clearly: you support socialising with colleagues because it can create personal bonds and make work feel less isolating. The discussion of separation is also relevant, particularly the point that some people want to leave work concerns behind and spend free time with family. However, the two sides are not developed equally. The benefits of workplace friendships receive several explanations, while the case for keeping work and social life separate is less fully explored. Some examples, such as gossiping about a boss, illustrate socialising but do not strongly explain its broader value. Develop each side with a clearer consequence or specific example to make the argument more complete.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, one paragraph for each view, and a conclusion that restates your position. This makes the discussion easy to follow. You also use signposting such as “Additionally,” “On the other hand,” and “In conclusion” to show the relationship between sections. At times, however, connections are mechanical or unclear. For example, “Because, don't like to carry any professional talks or burden to their home” is a fragment, and “So that” is separated from the sentence it should complete. Some ideas also repeat the point that colleagues become friends. Link explanations more smoothly and ensure each paragraph develops a distinct point.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a relevant range of vocabulary for the topic, including “personal bonds,” “professional life,” “workload,” and “emotionally,” and the reader can generally understand your meaning. There are also attempts at more specific expressions, such as “stressed-out” and “support in workplace.” However, several word choices and collocations are inaccurate or awkward, including “get socialise,” “enjoy spendins,” “keep their personal life distanced,” and “create support.” Spelling and word-form slips such as “oppinion” and “spendins” also reduce precision. Aim for natural combinations and check spelling and forms carefully; this will make your vocabulary more effective without needing unnecessarily complex words.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including explanations with “because” and a contrast introduced by “Whereas.” The main ideas remain understandable, but errors in sentence construction and verb forms occur across the response. For example, “Because, don't like to carry…” lacks a clear subject and main clause, while “we had to spent” uses an incorrect verb form. There are also agreement and tense problems in “the people around us in office becomes our friend” and “when we work as full time employee.” Punctuation sometimes creates fragments, as in “Employees… Enjoy gossiping.” Practise building complete clauses and checking subject–verb agreement, articles, and verb forms.

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