Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-24

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 has been argued that working days should be less and weekend should be more than usual. I believe that weekend should be added because if there is longer weekdays off people get chance to relax and spend time with their families.

On one hand, if there is long break for workers than they can rest and also can visit their families which makes their mind fresh and can work with new energy. Working continuously can make them depressed so, taking short break from work can discipline their body and mood therefore, employees can come with new ideas and innovation as well which overall benefits the company.

However, long break can makes them lazy. In addition, some business or industries can be in losses if they provided employe long dayoff. Government services and hospitals cannot handled the long queue of people waiting for the services after a long weekend. Similarly, if some mall shutdown for several days then it could be difficult for people to buy product or items. For example, they can add staff and make a shift alternative so that all can get proper days off and business also doesnot suffer loss.

I conclusion, four working days and three weekend days is best for all the sectors. Employee can visit their families and can go on vacation to refresh their mind. For those sectors who cannot bear losses in their business can add extra shift and staff to their company so they can also take proper rest. Therefore, i believe that longer weekend outweigh the disadvantages of working long days.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear position that the working week should be shorter and the weekend longer. Main ideas are presented, such as improved employee well-being, increased productivity, and the counter-argument regarding business losses. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited and occasionally shifts focus abruptly, such as the sudden pivot to shift work solutions in the third paragraph. While the writer outlines both advantages and disadvantages, the support remains somewhat general without deeply extended examples. This performance aligns best with the Band 6 descriptors, as all parts of the task are addressed with relevant ideas, but some points lack deeper elaboration.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, moving from an introduction to body paragraphs discussing advantages and disadvantages, and concluding with a summary. Cohesive devices are used to signal logical relationships, such as 'On one hand', 'However', and 'In conclusion'. However, referencing and transitions are sometimes mechanical or slightly awkward, as seen in phrases like 'if there is long break for workers than they can rest and also can visit'. Additionally, some sentences within paragraphs feel slightly disjointed. This level of cohesive control and logical progression sits comfortably within the Band 6 descriptors.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully using common work-related terms such as 'employees', 'depression', 'vacation', and 'productivity concepts'. There are several attempts to use less common vocabulary, such as 'innovation', 'alternative', and 'disadvantages'. However, noticeable errors in word choice, morphology, and collocation occur throughout the text, such as 'less' instead of shorter, 'weekend should be more', 'employe' instead of employees, and 'didnot suffer loss'. These errors do not impede communication, allowing the reader to follow the argument easily, which reflects the characteristics of Band 6.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over conditional structures like 'if some mall shutdown for several days then it could be difficult'. However, grammatical errors and punctuation issues are frequent, including missing articles ('in conclusion', 'for business'), subject-verb agreement issues ('business or industries can be in losses', 'hospital cannot handled'), and preposition errors. Capitalisation errors also occur, such as the lowercase 'i' used for the personal pronoun. While these errors are noticeable, they rarely impede communication, placing the grammatical performance at Band 5.5, rounded to Band 6 based on overall sentence variety.

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