Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-17
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)
It is undeniable that different people have diffeent opinion. In this regards, it is believed by some people that the working week should be shorter and workers should have a longer weekend. I disagree upto large extent with this notion due to many reasons which will be outlined in forthcoming paragraphs with logical conclusion.
To commence with, there are some benefits of this notion. The first and foremost is that workers can feel relax and calm. To explain it more, if they are having longer weekends then, there is no burden of work on employees and they can do fun with their children and family. For example, in foriegn countries such as Canada, Australia etc, most of the foreigners enjoy their weekends with their friends and family. They spent income on weekends which was earn in working days.
Beside this, there are various disadvantages if working days are shorter than weekends. The prime one is that poor people face difficulties for their livelihood. To clarify it more, if holidays are more in weeks, then they cannot earn enough money to complete their fulfill needs. Furthermore, there is also lose for government because people cannot pay taxes on time due to shorter work days. In india, some people do extra work in extra time and they do overnight at work because they want to earn more money to pay some loans and financial taxes.
In conclusion, although there are several benefits of this notion such as workers can feel relax and do fun with their family. Yet in the favour of poor people can never be neglected at any cost.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses the prompt by clearly stating a position against shortening the working week, noting reasons such as the needs of poor people and government tax implications. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive. For instance, the discussion on the benefits of longer weekends is superficial ('workers can feel relax and calm'). The arguments regarding livelihood and taxes are introduced but under-developed, lacking concrete statistical or logical extension. While a clear position is maintained throughout, the support for the main ideas tends to rely on generalisations rather than deep elaboration. This corresponds to Band 6, where all parts of the task are addressed, but some ideas remain under-developed.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay displays a logical overall progression with a clear introduction, body paragraphs featuring topic sentences, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices are used to signal relationships between ideas, such as 'To commence with', 'Beside this', and 'In conclusion'. However, referencing and cohesion can be somewhat mechanical or awkward at times, as seen in phrases like 'I disagree upto large extent with this notion due to many reasons which will be outlined in forthcoming paragraphs with logical conclusion.' Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct points regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the proposal. Despite some awkward transitions and minor cohesion errors, the overall arrangement remains coherent enough to satisfy the Band 6 descriptors.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is generally adequate for the task, allowing the writer to communicate their opinion on the working week. However, there are frequent spelling errors ('diffeent', 'upto', 'foriegn') and inaccurate word forms or collocations, such as 'earn' instead of 'earned', 'complete their fulfill needs', and 'lose for government' instead of 'loss for the government'. While the student attempts less common vocabulary, control over these items is inconsistent. The range of vocabulary is sufficient to convey the central message, but lexical errors are noticeable and prevent the response from achieving a higher band. This fits the profile for Band 5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'if holidays are more in weeks, then they cannot earn enough money to complete their fulfill needs.' However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in verb tense consistency ('was earn' instead of 'were earned'), preposition usage, and article omission ('In india' instead of 'In India'). Subject-verb agreement and sentence structure errors occur regularly, which can occasionally cause difficulty for the reader, although communication is not completely impeded. Because the writer uses a basic range of structures with frequent errors, the performance aligns closely with the Band 5 descriptors.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.