Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-20

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)

The days of working at a office should be shorter and the employee should have a longer holiday period at the end of the week. I totally agree to this point, employee should get longer weekend to enjoy their holiday, so that they can spend their private time with their family.

This essay totally agrees with the point of longer weekends, employee deserves the long period of holiday for the end of the week, because working for company for a whole week may frustrate the person or irritate them. In addition, to make them relax, the office should give longer weekend twice or once in a month. This will help the employee to fresh up their mood and can do the work at office with double speed and by heart. For example, making the employee work for hours daily and giving the short period of weekend, this might frustrates the worker and demotivate him to do his given work.

Also if the worker gets long weekend so they could spend more time with their family. Employee can make a weekend plan like for going on a trip with his/her parents or family members. This will help them to reduce their day to day life stress and to spend a joyful trip. For instance, spending time with family helps to reduce the stress and that motivates the employee to work hard. Moreover, by doing these extra curriculam activity with family makes their mind to stay calm.

Therefore, giving the long weekend and doing the week days shorter will make the employee more energetic for their given task in office.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt directly, taking a clear position that shorter working weeks and longer weekends are beneficial. Key ideas, such as reducing workplace stress and increasing productivity, are presented and supported with reasons. However, the development of ideas tends to be repetitive, relying on similar points about stress and family time across multiple paragraphs rather than expanding into wider socio-economic arguments. While all parts of the task are addressed, the support remains somewhat limited and generalised, which aligns the response with a Band 6.0 performance under Task Achievement. For a higher score, the writer needs to introduce more varied and fully elaborated points, such as economic impacts or employee retention.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a generally coherent overall arrangement with a clear stance established from the beginning. Paragraphing is utilised to separate the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. However, the progression of ideas is sometimes hindered by mechanical and repetitive cohesive devices, such as the frequent use of 'This will help' and 'Also'. Furthermore, referencing is occasionally unclear, as seen in sentences like 'Also if the worker gets long weekend so they could spend more time with their family.' These limitations in managing cohesion and logical flow keep the response at a Band 5.5, showing characteristics of both Band 5 and Band 6.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the student to communicate their main ideas clearly. There are attempts to use less common items, such as 'extracurricular activity', 'frustrate', and 'demotivate', but these are accompanied by noticeable inaccuracies in word choice, form, and collocation, such as 'fresh up their mood' instead of 'refresh their mood', and 'doing the week days shorter' instead of 'making weekdays shorter'. Additionally, there are repetitive terms, particularly 'employee', 'weekend', and 'stress'. These lexical limitations and errors place the response firmly in the Band 5.5 category.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures like conditional sentences ('if the worker gets long weekend so they could spend...'). However, these complex structures frequently contain grammatical errors, such as missing articles ('at a office'), incorrect subject-verb agreement ('employee should get'), and awkward prepositions or tense usage ('this might frustrates the worker'). While the reader can understand the intended meaning, the high frequency of grammatical inaccuracies in complex clauses prevents the score from reaching a Band 6.0.

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

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