Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-12
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 often argued that working week ought to be squeezed and professionals should have a longer weekend.I partially agree with this view because it can lead to unsuccesful jobs and businesses but at the same time it will help the workers to enjoy a stress free life.
on the one hand,one major reason of why i agree with reducing the working hours in a week is that it is beneficial for mental health of working persons because working long hours can be stressfull for individuals which badly affect their minds and can cause depression and anxiety .As long weekends provide more time to relax and quality time to spend with family and friends which helps them to release their work pressure and stress .It acts as a therapy for mind and serve as a stress relieving for working persons.For instance,employs who get long weekend are mentally fit and healthy as compared to the people who have to work long week and only get a one day weekend.
On the other hand,long weekends and shorter weeks can badly effect the success rate of businesses and organizations because when people working in certain sectors get less working days, they devote less time to work which reduces the productivity of the organizations and their success ratio drops because long time work is the key to sucess .Moreover, despite of spending more time to work they spend most of the time in the form of weekends in fun activities which makes them less productive and lazy .They get invloved in other activities and get addicted to rest due to which businesses flop.
In conclusion,although long weekend are good for mental well being but they can badly effect the proge
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0
Your response addresses the question and presents a recognisable, balanced position: you partly agree, explaining that shorter working weeks may benefit mental health but could harm businesses. The mental-health point is supported with examples such as stress, anxiety, and time with family, while the business argument links fewer working days to lower productivity. However, some claims are asserted rather than explained—for example, that longer hours are “the key to success” and that workers become “lazy” or businesses “flop.” The conclusion begins to restate the contrast, but it is cut off, so your final position is not fully reinforced. Develop the business argument with a more specific example and complete the conclusion to make the response more fully supported.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0
The response has a clear overall structure, with an introduction, two contrasting body paragraphs signalled by “on the one hand” and “on the other hand,” and an attempted conclusion. This makes the main line of argument easy to follow. However, some linking is mechanical, and several sentences run together or are joined unclearly, such as the sentence beginning “As long weekends provide more time to relax” after the previous full stop. The conclusion is also incomplete, which interrupts the progression and leaves the essay without a finished ending. Use clearer sentence boundaries and make each paragraph develop one central point in a deliberate sequence; vary linking expressions rather than relying mainly on formulaic contrasts.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
You use vocabulary relevant to the topic, including “mental health,” “productivity,” “organizations,” and “depression and anxiety,” so the reader can understand your main ideas. There are also attempts at less common expressions, such as “stress relieving,” but several choices are inaccurate or unnatural and sometimes make the meaning less precise: “working week ought to be squeezed,” “success ratio drops,” and “addicted to rest.” Spelling errors such as “unsuccesful,” “stressfull,” and “sucess” are noticeable, as are inconsistent forms such as “employs” for workers. Build a more reliable range of topic vocabulary by checking collocations and spelling, and choose precise neutral terms instead of broad or exaggerated expressions.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including clauses with “because,” “which,” and “although,” and the overall meaning is generally recoverable. However, some complex sentences are faulty or incomplete. For example, “As long weekends provide more time to relax and quality time to spend…” is a dependent clause without a main clause, while “which badly affect their minds” has an agreement problem with its singular antecedent. There are also errors in articles, plurals, and sentence boundaries, as in “long weekend are good” and the run-on punctuation around several clauses. Practise building complete sentences with a clear subject and main verb, then check agreement and punctuation, especially when joining ideas with “which” or “because.”
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