Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-12

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 5.0)

Many people argue that the days of working should be less than the holidays for relaxation and mental peace. There are several reasons for this argument. Working five or six days in a week can make a man mentally upset and depressed. In this essay, we will discuss how many days should a man work in a week?

A large ratio of workers throughout the world do job in the field which is not of their choice. In result, they lack interest in their available job and want mental rest. Some of these people become lazy and adopt procrastination, duw to which their future becomes on threat. on the other hand, some people become mentally disturbed with time and argue that working days should be minimize. These people do not like hard working and love leisure time.

Long weekend should be provided to the citizens all over the world because when they are pressurized with burden of work they became upset with their lives. For example, last year, one of my father's colleagues sucide due to depression and overload of work. Long weekend and public holidays should be provided to the people because if the workers are mentally freshed and happy, they will be able to perform their duties even in a more perfect way. Physical health is also very important as well as mental health. A well known phrase, " early to bed and early to rise, makes a jack healthy, wealthy and wise" shows that a set routine and mental satisfaction play a major role to achieve success in life.

In my opinion, government should made a rule that working days should be shorter than weekends because a cooperative relation between the management and employees is fundamental for the development of company or institution. People should also adopt the profession or field of their own interest because according to my perspective, when they are satisfy with their decissions of life, they will perform well in their specific field.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The candidate addresses the prompt by taking a clear stance that working days should be shorter than weekends, supporting this with arguments regarding mental health, leisure, and productivity. A position is maintained throughout the essay. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and relies on sweeping generalisations, such as claiming that workers throughout the world are forced into unwanted jobs or that a long weekend is necessary globally to prevent severe mental distress. The inclusion of a personal example regarding a colleague provides some support, but overall, the ideas lack the depth and extension required for a higher band. While all parts of the task are addressed, the arguments remain somewhat superficial and could be enhanced with more balanced exploration or varied supporting evidence. This places the response comfortably at Band 6.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt at paragraphing, moving from introduction to body paragraphs discussing job satisfaction and mental health, followed by a conclusion. However, cohesion is frequently faulty or mechanical. There are noticeable issues with referencing and logical transitions between sentences, such as abruptly shifting from procrastination to minimizing working days using simple transitional phrases like 'on the other hand'. Furthermore, paragraphing is not always fully controlled, with some abrupt topic shifts within paragraphs. The introductory overview question is phrased awkwardly as a direct question rather than a statement of purpose. While the overall progression is discernible, the clumsy use of cohesive devices and occasional referencing errors prevent the response from achieving a higher band score, fitting the Band 5 descriptors well.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully communicating everyday ideas related to employment and well-being, such as 'mental peace', 'leisure time', and 'physical health'. There are attempts to use less common vocabulary, but these are frequently marred by inappropriate word choice, collocation errors, or spelling mistakes, such as 'large ratio of workers', 'duw to which', 'future becomes on threat', 'mentally freshed', and 'government should made a rule'. Errors such as 'sucide' for suicide and 'decissions' also appear. While communication is rarely impeded entirely, the density of lexical errors and unnatural phrasings restricts the score to Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, though complex structures are often faulty. The writer attempts various structures, such as conditional-style arguments ('if the workers are mentally freshed...') and relative clauses ('field which is not of their choice'). However, there are frequent grammatical and punctuation errors throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('working days should be minimize', 'they are satisfy'), incorrect prepositions ('do job in the field'), and awkward tense usage. These frequent errors occasionally cause difficulty for the reader and demonstrate limited control over complex syntactic structures, aligning with the Band 5 descriptors.

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

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