Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-22

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

It is important for everyone, including young people, to save money for their future.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.0)

Some people think that the teenage years are the happiest times of most people's lives, other think that adult life brings more happiness, in spite of greater responsibilities.

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

Some people believe that the adolescence years are the most enjoyable periods of a person’s life. While, other argue that adult life brings greater happiness, with greater obligations. This essay will discuss both views, and I believe that teenage years are generally the happiest period of life because of the lack of responsibilities and greater financial support.

On the one hand, people consider that adolescence times are the happiest stage of life because in teenage no one have any responsibilities. During this period generally parents provide all the financial support and guidance to their children not putting any sort of burden on them. However, in adolescence everyone lot of spare time which they spend in whatever they want. They are free to travel with their friends to numerous places, participating in various activities, pursue their hobbies, and playing several games. They did not have any tension of supporting families or taking care for their households because they have the back of their guardians. For instance, a school student can spend his evenings with his friends participate in different activities, enjoy hobbies without worrying about earning a living because they don’t have to think about management of families or to be provider for a household. Therefore, I relatively believe that teenage period of life is more enjoyable because of carefree lifestyle.

On the other hand, adulthood period of life is also pleasure taking because people believe that in this stage individual have financial independence. They don’t have to rely on anyone because they can do anything through self-support. Also, they have the opportunities to achieve their ambitions. However, in my perspective with these benefits comes lot of responsibilities such as obligations of families to support, taking measures for developing a better future. For instance, a person who achieved financial freedom by achieving his desired ambition and supporting his family should be a satisfactory feeling that his able to fulfill his responsibilities. Although, in my opinion adulthood can be more satisfactory through independence and achievements but with it comes greater responsibilities which can make life a bit complex.

In balance, teenagers have a carefree lifestyle with fewer financial and family responsibilities and adults can get satisfaction through achievement of their goals and become financially independent. However, both of the opinions have their advantages, I believe that teenage years of life are happier because they provide greater freedom from serious responsibilities.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The student has successfully addressed all parts of the prompt, discussing both views regarding whether adolescence or adulthood is the happiest period of life and providing a clear personal opinion throughout the essay. The introduction clearly outlines the intention to discuss both views and states a preference for the teenage years. Body paragraphs explore the lack of responsibilities and financial support during youth versus the responsibilities and independence of adulthood. Ideas are extended with relevant examples, such as school students enjoying hobbies without financial worries. However, the student's response actually answers a completely different prompt than the one provided in the instructions—the prompt asks about saving money for the future, whereas the student's essay discusses whether teenage years or adulthood are happier. Because the essay is entirely off-topic regarding the actual stimulus question provided, it cannot achieve a high score for Task Achievement.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a generally clear overall arrangement with standard paragraphing, including an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Transitional markers such as 'On the one hand', 'On the other hand', and 'In balance' are utilised to structure the response. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical, and referencing is not always clear. For instance, sentences like 'While, other argue that adult life brings greater happiness' display improper sentence fragmentation and punctuation. Furthermore, pronoun referencing occasionally becomes confusing, such as shifting between plural and singular pronouns when referring to students and teenagers. Paragraphing is adequate, but logical progression suffers due to repetitive ideas and clunky transitions.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'financial independence', 'obligations of families', and 'carefree lifestyle'. However, there are noticeable inaccuracies in word choice and collocation throughout the text. Examples include 'adolescence years' instead of 'adolescent years', 'pleasure taking' instead of 'pleasurable', and 'satisfactory feeling' instead of 'satisfying feeling'. Additionally, there are awkward phrasing choices like 'with it comes greater responsibilities'. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they restrict the lexical score to the band 5 range due to frequent slight unnaturalness.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and conditional structures. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in subject-verb agreement, articles, and word forms. Examples include 'no one have any responsibilities' (should be 'has'), 'everyone lot of spare time' (missing verb), 'taking care for their households' (preposition error), and 'his able to fulfill' (should be 'he is'). Punctuation and sentence boundaries are also occasionally problematic, such as starting a sentence with 'While, other argue...' which creates a fragmented dependent clause. These errors cause some difficulty for the reader and prevent the grammar score from reaching higher bands.

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

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