Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-08-15

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In many countries, people do not recycle their rubbish as much as they could.

Why do you think this is?

What can be done to change this?

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Nowadays, in the world, there are many ways to recycle your garbage, but people are not doing as much as they can, which is not appropriate, and i will discuss this topic further.

First of all, every country is developing many ways to recycle its garbage and try to make different kinds of things. For example, from waste to best, and compost fertilizer for farming and growing different kinds of vegetables, plants, and flowers, and getting the land ready, which is very beneficial for farming, which is one of the most essential things in a regular lifestyle. From my perspective, in India there are many ways to make natural compost to grow vegetables; it takes time and hard work, but some of the farmers do not use this method. For instance, rubbish from animals, like their poop and pee from cows, buffaloes, and other animals; if you store them and sprinkle them on the farmland, after some time you will see the difference after using their compost, which would be considered a natural fertilizer.

Other than that, if we could use this natural fertilizer on growing food, Don't need to use any chemical pesticides. This also impacts our health. While using natural pesticides, people will get environmental grow, green veggies which has more benefits and taste better than those. If every farmer uses these natural pesticides, the government needs to make a plan, like: if any farmer uses this kind of natural fertilizer, they will get a grant from the government to buy seeds and other vital things that are used for growing crops. To grow food using natural processes, the government needs to support people in doing that; they also need to advertise the importance of environmental process food production.

In conclusion, every country's citizens need to understand that recycling is a very essential thing, and we can make a variety of products in our daily lives.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt, but the focus is narrow. You discuss recycling primarily in the context of agricultural composting, which limits the scope of the answer. The prompt asks why people do not recycle generally, but your response focuses almost exclusively on farmers and natural fertilizers. While the ideas are relevant, they are not fully developed in a way that covers the broader societal reasons for low recycling rates (such as lack of infrastructure, convenience, or awareness). To improve, ensure your arguments cover a wider range of perspectives and address the prompt's requirements more comprehensively.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into paragraphs, but the logical progression is sometimes hindered by repetitive phrasing and weak transitions. For example, the transition 'Other than that' is used somewhat awkwardly to introduce the second body paragraph. While you use some cohesive devices, they are often mechanical or repetitive, such as the frequent use of 'different kinds of'. The referencing is occasionally unclear, particularly in the conclusion, which summarizes the importance of recycling but fails to synthesize the specific points made about government grants or farming. Improving the variety of linking words and ensuring each paragraph has a clear, distinct focus would enhance the flow.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks the precision and variety required for a higher band. You rely on basic terms like 'things', 'ways', and 'good/bad' concepts. There are some inaccuracies in collocation, such as 'environmental grow' and 'environmental process food production', which are not standard English expressions. While you attempt to use topic-specific vocabulary like 'compost fertilizer' and 'chemical pesticides', the overall range is limited. To achieve a higher score, try to incorporate more sophisticated synonyms and ensure that collocations are used accurately to convey your meaning more effectively.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede clarity. Issues include subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'every country is developing... and try to make'), punctuation errors (e.g., comma splices and the use of 'i' instead of 'I'), and awkward sentence construction, such as 'Don't need to use any chemical pesticides' which lacks a clear subject. While the meaning is generally understandable, the frequency of these errors prevents the writing from reaching a higher band. Focusing on sentence boundaries and ensuring subjects are clearly stated in every clause will improve your accuracy.

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

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