Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-22

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)

Have you ever wondering actual 5 days of working week is declining the efficiency of work than 4 days of working period? From my perspective, workers could face demanding lots of stress from 5 days of working week.

First, 5 days of working period might lead employees to be less motivation. Employees’ well-being and mental health is vital factors for company to increase profitability which leads to domestic’s economic development. However, the less motivation might cause high turnover, limited of new ideas, and extra cost of new recruitment.

Second, 5 days of working period could damage on employees’ health system. The extreme stress of work and less duration of freedom could negatively affect on employees’ well-being compared to only 2 days of weekend. For example, stress of work can evoke some predicaments such as anxiety, insomnia, disease, and even cancer, which might risk all human body cycle.

Lastly, longer weekend periods provide more fulfilled memories and recharged time for workers. The longer weekend enables to extend their vulnerable time with family and friends to be more relaxed. Furthermore, this duration can also promote the opportunity to discover about their preferences and interests, and also find out new habits to challenge their internal growth.

Overall, 4 days of working and 3 days of weekend convey pros such as, increase employees motivation, protect mental health, build strong relationships with their family, and also be aware of themselves from various habits. These psychological reasons truly convince 4 days of working period contains certain vision for employees for better community and developed society with healthy minds.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by clearly stating a position in favor of a shorter working week. The ideas are relevant, focusing on employee motivation, health, and personal well-being. However, the development is somewhat repetitive, and the arguments could be more nuanced. For instance, the link between a 4-day week and 'domestic economic development' is asserted but not sufficiently explained. While the position is clear throughout, the supporting points rely on generalizations rather than specific, well-developed examples. To reach a higher band, you should provide more concrete evidence or logical steps to connect your claims to the broader societal impact.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into clear paragraphs, each with a distinct focus. Cohesive devices such as 'First', 'Second', 'Lastly', and 'Furthermore' are used to guide the reader. However, the use of these devices is occasionally mechanical, and some transitions between sentences feel abrupt. Referencing is sometimes unclear, such as in the phrase 'the less motivation might cause', where the connection to the previous sentence could be smoother. The overall progression of ideas is logical, but the flow could be improved by using a wider variety of linking words and ensuring that each paragraph builds more naturally upon the last.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express ideas clearly. There are attempts to use less common items like 'predicaments', 'turnover', and 'insomnia'. However, there are several instances of awkward word choice and collocation errors, such as 'damage on employees’ health system' (should be 'damage employees' health') and 'vulnerable time' (likely meant 'valuable time'). These errors do not impede communication, but they do highlight a lack of precision. Expanding your range of collocations and focusing on word forms will help improve your score in this area.

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 subject-verb agreement and article usage, such as 'actual 5 days of working week is declining' and 'limited of new ideas'. Some sentences are awkward, for example, 'the less motivation might cause high turnover'. Punctuation is generally functional, but there are minor errors throughout. To improve, focus on mastering basic sentence construction and proofreading for common errors like missing articles or incorrect verb forms, which currently occur frequently enough to distract from the content.

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

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