Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-05

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)

Yes, i agree with the statement that the working week should be shorter and workers should have a longer weekend.

A break from work every week is very important for every worker. This will give them some sort of relax, reduce there tension, and boost them to work with double energy in their workspace.

Long working hours may increase the tension in the workers and can make them tired also. A tired and weak worker can not give its best even if he is working for long hours and taking no leaves as compare to the worker who is coming with enthusiasm, energy and determination. Long working hours and short weekends is also responsible for the increasing rate of depression in the contemporary working class. If a person doesn't have a proper time to rest so how he or she can contribute with their full potential in a company's work. One of the major reasons why a firm is unable to earn a profit is less determental and lazy workforce.

It is not written anywhere that if a workforce working for long hours will definitely produce more profits steadily.

It is the responsibility of the employer to take care of his employees who are working for him.

Reducing work hours and working days will make a worker less anxious and reduce its stress also. This will also reduce the rate of taking leaves unanimously. Shortening of working hours will increase the flexibility of the worker. This will also increase the productivity of the firm. By doing so a worker can also give some time to his family and loved ones and everybody knows that family can cure any type of stress and anxiety. Short working hours can also contribute in giving some time to a person to pursue or can work on his own interests. It will provide some time to them to think sbout themselves also.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by clearly stating an agreement with the proposition that the working week should be shortened. A position is maintained throughout the essay. Relevant ideas are presented, such as the relationship between shorter working hours, reduced stress, and increased productivity. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others, while certain points remain under-developed or repetitive. For instance, the discussion on workers' enthusiasm and health is introduced well, but the supporting arguments tend to generalise without sufficient specific examples or deep extension. To reach a higher band, the writer needs to fully develop all main ideas with more detailed explanations, concrete examples, and extended reasoning rather than merely repeating the core premise in different words.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear stance right from the beginning. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. The student attempts to link sentences and paragraphs, but referencing is not always clear, and the logical progression between ideas stumbles at times. For instance, transitional phrases are lacking or overly basic, and some sentences feel disjointed from the preceding ones, such as the abrupt shift to discussing a firm's profitability. Paragraphing is attempted, but the main body is heavily congested into a single massive block of text instead of being broken down into distinct, logical thematic paragraphs. To improve coherence and cohesion, the writer should organise the response into clear paragraphs, each focusing on a single central topic, and employ a wider, more natural range of cohesive devices to guide the reader smoothly through the argument.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully communicating straightforward ideas about work hours, stress, and productivity. There are attempts to use less common vocabulary, such as 'contemporary working class', 'enthusiasm', and 'flexibility', but these are accompanied by some inaccuracy in word choice and collocation, such as 'less determental and lazy workforce' and 'rate of taking leaves unanimously'. Spelling and word-choice errors are present, such as 'there' instead of 'their', but they generally do not impede communication. To achieve a higher band, the writer must expand their lexical repertoire, incorporate precise academic collocations, and demonstrate better control over word formation and spelling to ensure the vocabulary is used with both flexibility and accuracy.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing structures such as conditional clauses and relative clauses. There are, however, some errors in grammar and punctuation throughout the text. These include subject-verb agreement issues, such as 'a workforce working for long hours will definitely produce' and 'if a person doesn't have a proper time', as well as awkward phrasing and structural lapses like 'so how he or she can contribute'. Punctuation is occasionally neglected or misused. Fortunately, these errors rarely impede overall communication. To move up to the next band, the writer needs to produce a greater frequency of error-free sentences while maintaining a wider and more ambitious range of complex grammatical structures with precise control.

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

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