Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-15

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 5.5)

In this busy world, it is very important to have a balance work-life balance in our lives. Nowadays, it has become a trend to outsource household chores or looking after children in this busy lifestyle. This trend has been popular majorly in cities where everyone is busy in building a career or lifestyle.

In this modern era, managing time plays a crucial role in building a career and taking care of health and family. In order to cope up with this, it is important to get things done like household chores or looking after children by paying as it reduces the workload and saves time. For instance, this would also have a significant impact mentally and physically as people tend to loose their energy leading to increase stress, depression and anxiety thinking in minds about the things to be done. This would eventually help people generate income a leading to more employment.

On the other hand, it has been seen that in the cities people getting almost everything done through others by paying a significant amount to which leads to being lethargic and not able to spent time with their childrens. In addition, people tend to spend considerable amount of time at work to pay off the expenses which makes them more stressed.

In conclusion, there should a balance in getting things done. In my opinion, household chores can be a good option as it is time-consuming whereas nurturing children should be done as that is a crucial stage in the development of child.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: the benefits of outsourcing work for employment and the personal perspective on whether people should do these tasks themselves. However, the development is somewhat limited. While you mention that outsourcing creates employment and saves time, the arguments lack depth and specific examples. The conclusion provides a clear opinion, but the transition between the benefits of outsourcing and the drawbacks is slightly abrupt. To reach a higher band, ensure that each point is fully extended with more detailed reasoning or illustrative examples rather than just stating the ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organised into logical paragraphs, each with a clear focus. You use some cohesive devices such as 'In this modern era', 'On the other hand', and 'In conclusion' to guide the reader. However, the flow within paragraphs is occasionally mechanical, and some transitions feel repetitive. For instance, the link between the stress of working and the need for outsourcing could be smoother. The use of referencing is generally clear, though some sentences are slightly disjointed, which prevents the essay from achieving a more sophisticated level of cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'outsource', 'lethargic', and 'nurturing'. There are some minor errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'balance work-life balance' (redundant) and 'loose their energy' (should be 'lose'). Additionally, 'thinking in minds' is an unnatural phrasing. While you attempt to use more complex vocabulary, the precision is inconsistent. To improve, focus on using collocations more accurately and avoiding repetitive phrasing to show a wider, more flexible range of vocabulary.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors, such as 'cope up with' (should be 'cope with'), 'there should a balance' (missing 'be'), and 'development of child' (missing an article). Subject-verb agreement and pluralisation issues, such as 'spent time with their childrens', also occur. While these errors do not significantly impede communication, they are frequent enough to prevent a higher score. Increasing the variety of error-free complex structures and proofreading for basic grammatical slips would significantly improve your score.

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

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