Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-10-16

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)

Smoking is injurious to health and can cause seious illness and should be declared illegal. I completely agree with this statement because it harms people's health and cost a fortune.

The first and foremost reason is the negative impact on health. when people smoke a cigarette they feel happy. The reason is that their brain releases dopamine, which is also called a happy hormone. After some period of time people become addicted to it and they may start smoking more cigarettes in a day than usual. As a result, they cannot concentrate on their work because their mind becomes addticted to receive a short-lived feeling of pleasure. Furthermore, they cannot work on demanding tasks, they may start feeling exhausted. In the long run, smoking also damages their lungs so they experience breathlessness. For example, one of my friends started smoking in the college and he smoked for 5 years. After that his health started worsening, he could not study continuously. He needed to smoke a cigarette in an hour. Consequently, he failed in an exam. Furthermore, if he started running, he felt breathless instantly. This shows that a bad habit can ruin a healthy life of individuals.

Another reason is that it is too expensive. At first, people do not feel expenses. However, after being addicted they may gradually increase their cigarettes consumption. As a result, they have to spend more money on cigarettes. For example, my friend vandan used to smoke one cigarette in a day. After that he started smoking 10 cigarettes and sometimes 20. At that time, he needed to borrow money from another person. He almost spent 50% of his salary on cigarettes. Consequently, he went into debt.

To conclude, Smoking can not only harm people's health but also affect their financial well-being. I believe government should make it illegal so that people can live life happily without an addiction.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

Your position is clear from the introduction: you completely agree that smoking should be illegal, and the conclusion returns to this view. You give two relevant reasons—harm to health and financial cost—and support them with examples from your friend’s experience, so the task is addressed. The health discussion is more developed, explaining addiction, reduced concentration and breathlessness. The financial point is also relevant, but it relies mainly on one person’s spending and debt; explain more directly why these effects justify a legal ban, rather than other measures such as restrictions or support to quit. Some claims, such as smoking causing exam failure, need a clearer link to the central argument. More balanced development would strengthen the response.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, two body paragraphs presenting separate reasons, and a conclusion. The progression within the health paragraph is generally logical, moving from dopamine and addiction to effects on work and breathing. Linking expressions such as “As a result,” “Furthermore,” and “Consequently” help show relationships between ideas. However, these transitions are used somewhat mechanically and repeatedly, and some links are not fully convincing—for example, the connection between smoking and failing an exam is asserted rather than explained. The two examples about your friend also make the paragraphs feel anecdotal. To improve, use a wider range of referencing and transitions, and make each example explicitly support the paragraph’s main point.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including relevant terms such as “addicted,” “dopamine,” “breathlessness,” and “financial well-being.” There are also attempts at more specific phrasing, such as “short-lived feeling of pleasure.” However, several spelling and word-choice errors are noticeable, including “seious,” “addticted,” and “expenses” where “costs” or “spending” would be more natural. Some collocations are awkward, such as “increase their cigarettes consumption” and “spend 50% of his salary on cigarettes.” Repetition of “smoking,” “cigarettes,” and “As a result” also limits flexibility. Aim for accurate collocations and a broader range of precise terms for health and financial consequences.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including subordinate clauses with “because,” “when,” and “after,” and these generally allow your meaning to remain clear. Some sentences are controlled well, such as “After some period of time people become addicted to it and they may start smoking more cigarettes in a day than usual.” However, there are some errors in sentence boundaries, capitalization, agreement, and articles. For example, “when people smoke” begins a sentence and needs a capital letter, while “Smoking can not only harm” is incorrectly capitalized after the comma in the conclusion. “Smoking … cost a fortune” also has a subject–verb agreement error. Review punctuation and check each sentence for consistent tense and agreement; greater accuracy across your complex sentences would improve control.

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