Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-06

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

The working week should be shorter and workers should have a longer weekend.

Do you agree or disagree?

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

A longer weekend should be given to workers and the working week should be shorter because employees of the company can spend more time with their family improving their work-life balance. Most of the companies will also hire more employees resulting in reduction of unemployment in every nation.

Majority of the companies follow 5 days-a-week schedule giving workers 2 days to spend time with their family and to do other extra activities they are interested in. This schedule is not adequate for most people because 2 days are not enough to connect with the family and also refreshing from the past week. So many of them have a hard time waking up at Monday and going to work. This issue can be resolved if the employees are given 3 days weekend because doing so, they will get time to bond with their family, pursue any hobby and refresh their minds from last week.

I will improve the country's economic condition as well because unemployment rates will decrease. Most companies have to complete a task in the given deadline. With few overall working hours per week, the task will be nearly impossible to complete within the given time constraint. Company will have no option left other than to hire new employees. Hiring new people will make number of unemployed people less and in turn helps in growth of the country.

To conclude, it is a great idea to make weekend longer and working week shorter because not only it will improve a employee's work-life balance but doing this will also improve overall situation of the world because unemployment will no longer be a major issue on earth.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear position in favor of a shorter working week. The ideas regarding work-life balance and unemployment are relevant and developed. However, the argument that companies will automatically hire more staff to cover the same workload is a significant over-generalization and lacks nuance, as it ignores factors like automation or budget constraints. While the main points are clear, the development is somewhat simplistic and lacks the depth required for a higher band. The conclusion restates the position effectively, but the overall argument would benefit from more sophisticated reasoning and concrete examples.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, each with a clear central topic. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Most of the companies', 'This issue can be resolved', and 'To conclude'. However, the use of these devices is sometimes mechanical or repetitive. For instance, the transition between the second and third paragraphs is abrupt. The referencing is generally clear, but the flow between sentences could be improved to create a more natural progression of ideas. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the introduction, body, and conclusion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express their ideas clearly. There is some attempt to use topic-specific vocabulary like 'work-life balance', 'unemployment rates', and 'time constraint'. However, the range is limited, and there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'refreshing from the past week' (should be 'recovering' or 'refreshing themselves') and 'make number of unemployed people less' (should be 'reduce the number of unemployed people'). The vocabulary is functional but lacks the flexibility and precision expected at higher bands.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with articles ('at Monday', 'a employee's') and verb forms ('I will improve the country's economic condition'—the writer likely meant 'This would improve'). There are also issues with sentence construction, such as 'doing so, they will get time', which is a slightly awkward participial phrase. While these errors do not impede communication, they are frequent enough to prevent the essay from reaching a higher band.

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

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