Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-28

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 6.0)

It is often argued by some that working hours should be limited and employees must have a longer weekend. This trend can be attributed to various factors, including the shorter working hours can overcome mental illness, as well as creating opportunities to spend more and more time doing other activities. I partially agree with this statement because the distraction from work can lead to laziness.

On the one hand, there are several reasons why working hours should be shorter and workers should have a longer vacation. One key reason is that it helps to create more opportunities for workers who are involved in other activities. To be more precise, employees can spend their time learning different skills apart from professional work. For example, workers can learn basic computer skills to improve their knowledge and become experts in some software programs. Therefore, it can be beneficial for them to adopt some knowledge and improve productivity in a particular task. Apart from that, if a person is doing the same tasks every day, they can be bored, and they cannot concentrate on a specific task. Hence, they feel unsatisfied and lead to mental illness.

On the other hand, there are countless drawbacks as well. Primarily, the major issue is that distraction while working hours should be limited or shorter than expected. In other words, longer holidays can affect both professionally and individually because people spend more time doing other extra activities. For instance, if employees can spend time playing video games and enjoying time with their freinds at outdoors, then it must affect the works due to laziness. Besides this, longer holidays can decrease the imagination and creativity levels. To explain it further, if people are working for a shorter period of time, then they disconnect from work and impact on their skills.

In conclusion, although the shorter hours of working can lead to provide the relaxation and allow participants to engage in other extra activities to reduce negative outcomes, the distraction from professional work cannot be ignored.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task and presents a clear, albeit nuanced, position. The writer states, "I partially agree with this statement," and proceeds to discuss both the advantages of shorter working hours, such as skill acquisition and mental well-being, and the potential drawbacks, such as distraction and a decrease in creativity. However, some of the supporting ideas are slightly underdeveloped or confused. For instance, the argument that longer holidays lead to laziness and reduced imagination is somewhat repetitive and vague ("impact on their skills"). The ideas are relevant, but the counter-arguments could have been articulated with greater clarity and logical extension. This performance aligns well with Band 6.5, rounded to 6.0 due to under-developed arguments in the body paragraphs.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay is arranged coherently with an identifiable introduction, two body paragraphs presenting opposing views, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate ideas. Cohesive devices are employed throughout, including transitional phrases like "On the one hand," "On the other hand," and "In conclusion." However, referencing and cohesion can occasionally be mechanical or imprecise, such as the sentence "Hence, they feel unsatisfied and lead to mental illness," where the grammatical subject is missing or unclear, disrupting the logical flow. Additionally, some transitional phrases feel forced or slightly unnatural, placing this response securely in the Band 6 category.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as "professional work," "productivity," and "creativity levels." However, there are notable lexical inaccuracies and awkward collocations throughout the essay. For example, writing "overcome mental illness" instead of "prevent" or "reduce," using "extra activities" redundantly, and spelling errors like "freinds." The phrase "distraction while working hours should be limited" is semantically confused. While communication is not severely impeded, these recurring inaccuracies in word choice and collocation prevent the response from achieving a higher band, making Band 6 an accurate reflection.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing conditional structures ("if a person is doing the same tasks...") and relative clauses. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several noticeable errors, such as fragment sentences or missing subjects ("...and lead to mental illness"), awkward preposition use ("at outdoors"), and faulty verb complementation ("impact on their skills" instead of "impact their skills"). Furthermore, the sentence "if employees can spend time playing video games and enjoying time with their freinds at outdoors, then it must affect the works" contains tautology and awkward phrasing. These errors occasionally strain the reader, fitting the Band 5.5 to 6.0 profile well.

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

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