Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-28

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people say that physical education classes are an important part of a child's education. Others believe that it is more important to focus on academics during school time.

Discuss both these views, and give your opinion.

Give reasons for your answer, and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Some of the individuals are of the opinion that sports and other related subjects are vital for a student.Whereas,some people think it is crucial to focus on the main subjects during their time at school.I strongly support the idea of including physical education while at the school.

I believe that there should be subjects other than the academics which will help the student recognize their strength and their capability.Some of them might not be good at maths or other subjects but they will be talented in music or other sports which they are interested. This will not only help them recignize their strength,but also help them shape their future.For example, Justin Biebers skills were recognized by his teacher in the music class which boost his confidence and helped him sharpen his skills and become a global superstar. It would not have been possible if there was no extra curriculum activities in his school.

Some of the leisure activities will also help the student clear his thoughts and think up straight by relaxing to focus on the academics. This will also help an individual improve their cognitive function.It is very important that the child at an young age to have all kind of activities in their school to improve their physical as well as mental health.School plays a crucial role in helping students grow individually.It is also noticed that having physical activities will also help the young generation keep away from some of the diseases.

In conclusion, It is important that younger kids need to be exposed to P.E during their school time to help them strengthen and recognize their skills.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the importance of physical education and the academic-focused perspective, while clearly stating a personal opinion in the introduction. The ideas are generally relevant, but the development is somewhat limited and relies heavily on a single extended example about Justin Bieber, which contains some slight factual/contextual assumptions regarding school music classes. While the writer touches on health, cognitive function, and skill recognition, the arguments would benefit from deeper elaboration and broader supporting evidence. Nevertheless, a clear position is maintained throughout the essay. The response satisfies the requirements of Band 6, as all parts of the task are addressed, but some ideas are slightly under-developed or rely on broad generalisations.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a brief conclusion. Paragraphing is used to separate distinct ideas, such as individual skill development in the second paragraph and mental/physical health benefits in the third. However, mechanical errors in cohesion and punctuation occasionally disrupt the flow, such as missing spaces after periods (e.g., 'Whereas,some', 'straight by', 'function.It') and awkward transitions. Referencing is sometimes unclear, particularly with pronoun usage and referencing across sentences. Paragraph 4 consists of only a single short sentence, which weakens the concluding structure. Overall, the organizational structure meets the criteria for Band 6, where information and ideas have coherent progression, but cohesive devices are sometimes faulty or mechanical.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'cognitive function', 'global superstar', and 'extra curriculum activities' (though the latter contains a slight grammatical form error, it should be 'extracurricular'). There are several noticeable word choice and spelling inaccuracies, including 'recignize' instead of 'recognize', 'an young age' instead of 'a young age', and awkward phrasing like 'think up straight'. Despite these lexical errors and typos, the vocabulary used is sufficient to convey the intended meaning without causing major impedance for the reader. This performance aligns well with the Band 6 descriptor, demonstrating an adequate range and some attempts at less common vocabulary accompanied by inaccuracies.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures. However, there is a noticeable frequency of grammatical errors and punctuation flaws throughout the text. Examples include article misuse ('at an young age'), subject-verb agreement issues ('younger kids need to be exposed'), and missing spaces after terminal punctuation marks. Complex sentence structures are occasionally faulty, such as in the sentence 'Some of the individuals are of the opinion that... Whereas, some people think...'. While these errors are noticeable, they rarely impede overall communication. The writing reflects a typical Band 6 profile, featuring a mix of simple and complex sentence structures alongside recurring grammatical errors that do not block the reader's understanding.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.