Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-09-29

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Smoking can cause serious illnesses and should be made illegal.

To what extent do you agree?

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

Student answer (Band 6.0)

Some people are of the school of thought that smoking can result in grave illnesses and should be banned. To a large extent I agree with this group of people.

To begin, research has shown that smoking over time predisposes smokers to lung cancer as well as increases the risk for many other cancers. Many countries with increased incidence of this disease have a high smoking rate. This can lead to increase in the pressure on the healthcare funds, which will can result in economic instability.

Furthermore, many articles have suggested that passive smokers are more likely to suffer from chronic conditions related to smoking than active smokers. This can eventually result in increase in the number of people coming down with disease. As a result the working population of the country will experience a decline as many become disabled in some way. Also, this can lead to high death rate which will result in a regressing population which will further decrease the workforce of the country.

In conclusion, I am of the opinion that smoking should be made illegal as the disadvantages like high mortality rates, high morbidity rate, decline in the workforce of a country far outweighs its advantages.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The student addresses the prompt by stating a clear position on whether smoking should be made illegal due to health risks. Ideas regarding healthcare pressure and passive smoking are presented, but they are insufficiently extended and lack concrete examples from personal knowledge or experience, as requested by the prompt. More importantly, the response falls significantly short of the minimum word count requirement, containing only 201 words instead of the required 250. This under-length impacts the overall development and completeness of the task, capping the score at Band 5.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, with an introduction, two body paragraphs featuring distinct arguments, and a brief conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'To begin', 'Furthermore', and 'In conclusion' are utilized to signpost the progression of ideas. However, paragraphing is somewhat basic, and referencing at times feels a bit mechanical. Despite the short length, the essay maintains a clear overall progression from the main thesis to supporting points about economics, passive smoking, and workforce decline.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for the task, successfully employing terms such as 'predisposes', 'economic instability', 'chronic conditions', and 'mortality rate'. There are minor issues in collocation or phrasing, such as 'coming down with disease' (which lacks an article or pluralization) and 'high morbidity rate'. However, the vocabulary is sufficient to communicate the main ideas clearly without causing major comprehension difficulties for the reader, fitting the Band 6 profile.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as 'Some people are of the school of thought that...' and 'This can lead to increase in the pressure...'. There are some noticeable grammatical errors, particularly missing articles ('lead to increase in the pressure', 'result in high death rate') and a slight grammatical slip ('which will can result'). Nevertheless, the structures used do not impede communication, and the overall grammar control supports a solid Band 6 score.

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

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