Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-29
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
Some people believe that allowing children to make their own choices on everyday matters (such as food, clothes and entertainment) is likely to result in a society of individuals who only think about their own wishes. Other people believe that it is important for children to make decisions about matters that affect them.
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 believe that allowing children to make their own choices on everyday matters (such as food, clothes and entertainment) is likely to result in a society of individuals who only think about their own wishes. Other people believe that it is important for children to make decisions about matters that affect them.
On one hand,People believe that children making their own decisons has made them selfish and they only think about their own and not about others.It is believed that letting children decide what they want to eat or what choice of clothing to wear or watching their own taste of genre of choice has resulted in spoiling them.An example i have personally experienced was of a girl in my class who had the choices in every aspect from the type of sport she want to play to the course she want to be enrolled in.This has resulted in her loosing marks in the course she enrolled and having multiple injuries while playing.
On the other hand, People believe that it is important for children to know the positive reaction and the negative reaction of their actions.The children has the right to question when the choice made for them was wrong and what can be done to make it better instead of blaming the child entirely.A person who has taken a wrong choice has the right to correct that mistake and move forward.This will make the bond of the parents and their children more strong.The child can easily open up to their parents and not hide problems from them.
In conclusion,I believe both parents and children should have a discussion and see through all the pros and cons of a decison instead of arguing and blaming each other.The happiness matter the most to a family.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
The response addresses both parts of the prompt regarding the two views on children making everyday choices and provides a clear personal opinion in the conclusion. Ideas are relevant, but some are under-developed or supported by weak generalisations. For instance, the personal example about a classmate losing marks and getting injured is somewhat disconnected from the broader societal implications of selfishness mentioned in the prompt. While the writer covers all necessary parts of the task, the depth of development aligns best with Band 6.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear structural signposts such as On one hand, On the other hand, and In conclusion. However, paragraphing is somewhat problematic; the main body paragraphs are overly dense and contain multiple distinct ideas that should be separated. Furthermore, mechanical cohesion and punctuation errors (such as missing spaces after commas and periods, e.g., 'On one hand,People believe') disrupt the smooth flow of the text. Referencing is occasionally unclear, resulting in a Band 6 performance.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common phrases like 'selfish', 'genre of choice', and 'pros and cons'. However, there are notable word choice and collocation inaccuracies, such as 'taken a wrong choice' instead of 'made a wrong choice', and 'loosing' instead of 'losing'. Spelling and word formation errors appear occasionally, but they do not impede overall communication, placing the response firmly at Band 6.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over structure. However, grammatical errors are frequent throughout the response. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('The children has the right'), incorrect prepositional usage ('choices in every aspect'), and persistent punctuation errors regarding spacing. While communication is not severely hindered, the frequency of errors prevents the grammar score from reaching a Band 6.5 or 7, making Band 5.5 a fair reflection of current control.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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