Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-02

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)

There is a considerable debate about whether the working weeks should be shorter and workers should have a longer weekend. While, I believe that the short working week can be more beneficial for workers as compared to long working week as it lead to various negative influence on the employees. So, it shows my agreement with the statement.

Firstly, the smaller weekends can cause detrimental effects on the health of the employees. Working continuously for many days can gradually increase the stress level in young adults. Which can triggers the mental illness by creating the anxiety due to heavy workload. This stressing working load will certainly disturb the sleep cycle and ultimately these behavioural and emotional changes can lead to depression in younger generation. For example, eight hours sleep is mandatory for everyone according to a study in USA. If its not completed at night there should be a sleep time at work for them. But due to large amount of workload it is not possible for them. Therefore, a citizen can experience health risks. Consequently, continuous and longer period of time would be dangerous for the health of young adults in various ways.

Secondly, shorter weekends can lead to fewer entertainment opportunities for the society members which ultimately had a great influence on government budget. Such as they did not have time for cinema or theaters , cafes, restaurants, parks, art galleries, zoos and museums. It can bring the economic loss in a country because a significant part of a country's because economic is depends on these major parts. Moreover, it can also affects the communication, exploring and discovering skills of a person due to less exposure with community and environment around them. For example, working for larger days can made a person introverted by affecting his interpersonal skills. So, it has a negative effect on the employees.

In conclusion, governments ought to reduce the working hours, so the citizens can get expose to the surroundings and get enough dopamine to survive and work efficiently.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt and maintains a clear position throughout. The arguments regarding health and economic impact are relevant, though the development is somewhat uneven. For instance, the point about sleep cycles is a bit tangential to the core argument of a shorter working week, and the link between weekend length and government budgets is slightly underdeveloped. To reach a higher band, ensure that every point directly supports the central thesis and provides more logical depth. The conclusion effectively summarizes the stance, though it introduces a new concept ('dopamine') that was not previously discussed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into clear paragraphs, and there is a logical progression of ideas. Cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', and 'In conclusion' are used to guide the reader. However, some transitions are mechanical or slightly awkward, such as 'Such as they did not have time for cinema'. Additionally, the use of referencing is occasionally unclear, which creates minor disruptions in the flow of information. Improving the variety of linking words and ensuring that pronouns clearly refer back to their antecedents would enhance the overall coherence.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express their ideas clearly. There are attempts to use less common items like 'detrimental', 'mandatory', and 'interpersonal', which is positive. However, there are several instances of imprecise word choice and collocation errors, such as 'can triggers the mental illness', 'significant part of a country's because economic is depends', and 'get expose to'. These errors do not impede communication, but they do limit the precision of the argument. Expanding the range of natural collocations would help improve this score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the writer attempts complex sentences, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with subject-verb agreement ('it lead to', 'it can also affects', 'working for larger days can made a person') and article usage. Punctuation is generally functional, but there are some issues with sentence fragments and comma usage. The errors are noticeable and occur throughout the text, though they rarely prevent the reader from understanding the intended meaning. Focusing on basic grammatical accuracy and proofreading for subject-verb agreement would be highly beneficial.

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