Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-11-01

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)

Employees should enjoy long weekends and working week should be shorter. I completely disagree with this view because long weekends bring financial instabilaty to workers and companies may cose.

On the one hand, longer weekends means less income for workers. On weekends they spend their time by scroling phone or other less productive work. Although leisure time is necessary, excessive free time make them lazy. If they spend most of the time on their personal enjoyment, their productivity will low. Therefore their purchasing power will low; as a result they become financially instable. For example, developing countries are mainly focus on productivity, insted of spending more time on leisure. So in that sense work can boost economy.

On the other hand, short working days may face a financial burden on companies. They should hire more employees to complete same amount of work; as a result it takes extra hours to complete. Consequently production cost will rise, so consumer have to pay exrta money for products.

For example, a company that finished a order at 5 days with 10 workers, now it will take 10 days or they can hire extara 10 employess, whis is costly and time consuming. As a result thhese companies may face a finacilal instability and in the future they willl be closed.

In conclusion, Though weekends are necessary for workers personal enjoyment, i believe that wokers and their productive works are backbone od a nations develpment.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

Your position is clear: you disagree with a shorter working week, and you give two relevant reasons—possible effects on workers’ income and higher costs for companies. The examples about developing countries and a company completing an order help illustrate these points. However, the reasoning is not fully convincing or consistently developed: the link between more leisure, lower productivity and reduced purchasing power is asserted rather than explained, and the company example is difficult to follow. The conclusion restates your view but does not draw the arguments together. The response also falls 10 words short of the required minimum. Develop each reason with a clearer explanation and a more precise example, and ensure the response meets the task length.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, two body paragraphs presenting separate reasons, and a conclusion. Paragraphing helps the reader follow the main points, and connectors such as “On the one hand,” “Therefore,” and “As a result” show how you intend the ideas to relate. However, some links are mechanical or unclear. For instance, the move from leisure time to workers’ purchasing power needs an explicit explanation, while the company example shifts between taking longer and hiring more staff without clearly showing the consequences. The conclusion is also brief and does not summarise both arguments. Use linking phrases selectively and make each paragraph progress through a clear claim, explanation and example.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant topic vocabulary, including “productivity,” “purchasing power,” “financial burden,” and “production cost,” which helps communicate the central argument. However, the range is limited and several inaccurate word choices, collocations and spelling errors make parts of the response harder to understand. Examples include “financial instabilaty,” “scroling phone,” “consumer have to pay exrta money,” and “backbone od a nations develpment.” Some phrases are also imprecise, such as “other less productive work” and “productive works.” Aim to use fewer, more accurate expressions and check spelling carefully. Learning common collocations for employment, income and business costs would make your argument clearer and more natural.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt a mixture of simple and complex sentences, including clauses introduced by “Although,” “because,” and “as a result.” This gives you a basis for expressing cause and contrast. However, the range remains limited, and frequent errors in sentence structure, agreement, articles and punctuation sometimes make the meaning difficult to follow. For example, “longer weekends means” has a subject–verb agreement problem, while “excessive free time make them lazy” has a similar error. In “They should hire more employees to complete same amount of work,” an article is missing, and the final sentence contains several unclear grammatical relationships. Practise checking agreement and articles, and build complex sentences around one clearly expressed main idea.

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