Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-05

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

It is sometimes possible to pay somebody to do things you don't want to do, or don't have time to do, for example, household chores or looking after children.

Is this a good way of providing work for others?

Should people do these things themselves?

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

Student answer (Band 5.0)

Research indicates that the characteristics we are born with have much more influence on our personality and development than any experiences we may have in our life. Which do you consider to be the major influence?

Opinions vary regarding whether individual's personality and developement are driven by their characteristics or their experiences in the life. I strongly believe that experiences predominently manipulate one's behaviour and growth. This essay will elaborate on the explanations behind my position and give some examples.

While it is undeniable that characteristics impact significantly on human behaviour and personality, major contribution is done by life events and experiences that happen in one's life. For Instacne, if a person's characteristics influence them to trust their partner, a few events of betrayal and heartbreaks can change their perspective drastically. Subsequently, a person can change their mindset and avoid trusting anyone easily after such experiences. Hence, these events gradually build individual's personality over time and heavily manipulate their actions and behaviour.

Moreover, It is widely observed through multiple studies that different life events help to build the overall perspective. To elaborate, if a family finds all their members as being an introvert and isolated from social life, there is a probability that one of its member can develope an extrovert personality based on the people they meet or lifestyle they adopt, which is diffrent from thier family. For instance, reseach shows that adults, who got exposure of performing frequent social activities, tend to feel more comfortable when attending social gathering. Whereas, thier siblings and other family members have different behavious according to their lifestyle.

To conclude, although peoples' behaviour is influenced by thier characteristics initially, multiple life events that happen over time predominently reshape it.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 2.0

The response is completely off-topic. The prompt asks about the ethics and implications of paying others to perform household chores or childcare. However, the student has written an essay about the 'nature vs. nurture' debate (characteristics vs. experiences). Because the response fails to address the specific task instructions provided, it cannot be assessed as a successful response to the prompt. In an official IELTS examination, this would be treated as a memorised or irrelevant response, resulting in a very low score for Task Achievement as the task requirements have not been met.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

Despite the content being irrelevant to the prompt, the essay itself is structured logically. It uses an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'Moreover', 'To elaborate', and 'To conclude' are used to link ideas, although the logical progression is applied to the wrong topic. Paragraphing is used appropriately, and the flow of ideas within the paragraphs is generally clear, even though the subject matter is entirely disconnected from the task instructions.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, showing an attempt to use academic language such as 'predominantly', 'manipulate', and 'drastically'. However, there are several spelling errors, such as 'developement', 'Instacne', 'thier', and 'reseach'. While the range is sufficient to express the student's (off-topic) ideas, the spelling inaccuracies and occasional awkward collocations prevent a higher score. The vocabulary is generally repetitive, and there is little evidence of sophisticated or precise lexical control.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are frequent grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('one of its member can develope') and incorrect article usage. Punctuation is generally functional, but the sentence structure often feels slightly mechanical. While the meaning is usually clear, the frequency of minor errors in grammar and spelling indicates a lack of control over complex structures. The writing is understandable, but it does not demonstrate the accuracy required for a higher band.

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

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