Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-16

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 4.5)

Sure. Here is the text from your handwritten page, typed out:

Essay

Sometimes people hire househelps when they are busy with other things or to get help from them when they do not feel good, which provide income for some people. In this essay we will discuss about it.

Mostly, people hire househelps when both husband and wife are working and there is nobody to take care of children, which is very necessary. In my opinion, as children cannot cook for themselves as well as small babies need more attention. Furthermore, people also pay for househelp when they are not in the position to do household work. For example, when a person is handicapped, they cannot do household work.

Secondly, I do not think this is a good way for providing work for others. If they are in need, it is a different thing but they should not work for others.

To conclude, hire people for getting help is a good thing, but it should not be a way of providing work to people.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The student addresses both parts of the prompt to some extent, discussing why people hire domestic help and offering an opinion on whether it is a good way to provide work. However, the ideas are severely limited and under-developed. Furthermore, the response is significantly under length, containing only 174 words against the 250-word minimum requirement. This major shortfall in length prevents proper extension and support of ideas, capping the score for this criterion. To improve, the student must expand their arguments with detailed explanations, relevant personal examples, and fully meet the word count requirement.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The essay displays some basic organization with introductory, body, and concluding paragraphs, but overall progression is lacking. Transitional phrases are somewhat mechanical, such as 'Secondly' and 'To conclude', and referencing is occasionally unclear, as seen in the phrase 'we will discuss about it' without a clear antecedent. Paragraphing is attempted, but the paragraphs are extremely brief and fail to develop coherent thematic blocks of thought. To achieve a higher band, the student needs to build clearer logical links between sentences and expand paragraphs so that ideas flow naturally and cohesively from one point to the next.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.5

The vocabulary used is basic and repetitive, relying heavily on simple terms like 'househelps', 'people', and 'work'. There are noticeable word choice and collocation issues, such as 'hire househelps when they do not feel good' and 'hire people for getting help'. The range is minimally adequate for conveying very basic ideas, but it is insufficient for expressing precise meaning or discussing more abstract concepts. The student must incorporate less common lexical items, synonyms, and natural collocations to elevate the vocabulary standard.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.5

The response features a very limited range of sentence structures, relying primarily on simple sentences and basic compound forms with frequent errors. Examples of grammatical inaccuracies include 'which provide income' (subject-verb agreement error), 'discuss about it' (unnecessary preposition), and 'small babies need more attention' (fragmented or incomplete thought). Punctuation and sentence boundaries are occasionally misused. While some simple sentences are error-free, the frequent errors in basic grammar structures cause some difficulty for the reader and reflect a weak control of grammatical forms.

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

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