Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-06

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people think that competition at work, at school and in daily life is a good thing. Others believe that we should try to cooperate more, rather than competing against each other.

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 5.0)

In recent times, advertising had become very frequent due to the rise in social media. In my opinion advertising plays a key role in our choices. This essay will discuss the reasons behind my opinion with relevant examples.

Nowadays, due to the rise in social media, personalized advertising had become very popular with advertising companies. Targeting individual people by monitoring their spending patterns. Many big tech companies are selling their customers data to advertising companies or using their data themselves to give users personalized ads. For instance, if I look up a shirt in amazon then after sometimes when I use instagram or facebook I see that shirt as an ad in my feed.

Many people follow fashion trends from social media these days by following their favourite influencers and actors. Moreover, many companies use these influencers and actors to promote their brands. Also, many of these influencers and celebrities promote the products for money and do not give a second thought about their fans and followers. For example, in recent times it came out that a fake company sponsored many famous people to promote their new product by vouching for them, by following these influencers many of their followers pre-booked the product but after delaying the shipments, the fake comany vanished without any trace, effectively stealing money from all the people who pre-booked.

In conclusion, ads are influencing us significantly by using their shady tatics and giving us personalized ads everyday. This has influenced our lifestyles very much because ads are everywhere we see and celebrities are promoting them constantly to public.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 3.0

The response is completely off-topic. The prompt asks for a discussion on the merits of competition versus cooperation in work, school, and daily life. However, the student has written an essay entirely about the influence of advertising and social media. Because the response fails to address the prompt's requirements, it cannot be assessed for task achievement in relation to the specific question asked. While the student provides a clear opinion and some supporting examples, these are irrelevant to the task instructions. Consequently, the response fails to address the central topic, resulting in a very low score for task achievement.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, each with a clear focus. There is a basic attempt at progression, moving from the introduction to specific examples of advertising tactics. However, the use of cohesive devices is somewhat mechanical, such as the repetitive use of 'also' and 'moreover'. While the paragraphing is appropriate, the lack of relevance to the actual prompt makes the overall logical flow irrelevant to the task. The referencing is generally clear, but the transition between ideas is simplistic. To improve, the student should focus on ensuring that every paragraph directly supports the central argument requested by the prompt.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'personalized advertising', 'spending patterns', and 'vouching for them'. There are some minor errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'shady tatics' (spelling error) and 'after sometimes' (incorrect phrasing). The vocabulary is sufficient to convey the student's intended meaning, but it lacks the sophistication or precision required for higher bands. The range is somewhat limited, and the student relies on relatively common expressions. Expanding the range of academic collocations and ensuring accurate spelling would help improve this score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors throughout the text, such as 'advertising had become' (incorrect tense usage) and 'fake comany' (spelling error). Additionally, there are issues with sentence fragments and punctuation, such as 'Targeting individual people by monitoring their spending patterns.' which lacks a subject. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to be noticeable. The student needs to focus on subject-verb agreement and consistent tense usage to improve accuracy and demonstrate better control over complex structures.

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