Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · IELTS General Essentials · 2026-10-27

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 5.0)

Smoking is injurious to health and can cause serious diseases, such as heart disease and mental illness. The government should make it illegal for the good of society.

To begin with, smoking is a bad addiction for people. Smoking substances such as cigarettes and vapes. After just one use, they can't live without it. They consume it whenever they feel stressed and happy. This habit invites major health risks such as heart attacks, and lung infections. Additionally, it can affect mental stability. It can make people angry and impatient; they also feel tired because of overconsumption of nicotine. As a result, people lose their mental stability.

Furthermore, the government should prohibit people from consuming it. It is good for society's health. The reason is that when people consume it they are not able to think about anything and it makes them violent. I believe that the authority levies a high penalty on people who consume it, this can help people reduce their purchases of these kinds of products. Moreover, they should apply a high tax on nicotine products. For example, in the Indian government applied a rule for people, who consume cigarettes in public places they

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.5

You take a clear position in favour of making smoking illegal, and you give relevant reasons, including health risks, addiction, penalties and taxation. However, the response addresses the question only partially: several claims are asserted rather than explained, such as saying smoking makes people violent, and the discussion does not consider why prohibition might be difficult or whether less restrictive measures could work. The example about Indian rules is unfinished, so it does not support your argument. The response also falls 54 words short of the required minimum, limiting the space available to develop your ideas and provide a complete example. Explain each reason with a clear cause-and-effect link and finish with a direct conclusion about the extent of your agreement.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a basic overall structure: an opening position, two body paragraphs introduced by “To begin with” and “Furthermore,” and a sequence of related points within each paragraph. These signposts help readers follow the broad direction of your argument. However, progression is limited because ideas are often listed rather than connected through explanation. For example, the paragraph moves from addiction to stress, health risks and mental stability without showing how each point supports the case for a legal ban. The final example breaks off mid-sentence, leaving the response without a completed ending. Develop one main point at a time, use pronouns with clear references, and add a concluding paragraph to make the overall progression complete.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the general subject, including “addiction,” “health risks,” “nicotine,” “penalty” and “tax.” Some phrases show an attempt to express more specific ideas, such as “mental stability.” However, the range is limited and several choices are imprecise or repetitive. “Smoking substances such as cigarettes and vapes” is awkward, while “consume it” is repeated and does not clearly identify whether “it” means smoking or nicotine products. “This habit invites major health risks” is also an unnatural collocation. Choose precise terms such as “tobacco products” or “smoke,” and vary repeated wording. More accurate collocations would make your argument clearer and more natural.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You use mostly short, straightforward sentences, with some attempts to connect clauses using “because,” “when” and “as a result.” This allows the main points to be understood, but the range of sentence structures is limited and errors occur in several sentences. For example, “Smoking substances such as cigarettes and vapes” is a sentence fragment, and “After just one use, they can't live without it” has unclear pronoun reference and inconsistent number. In “I believe that the authority levies a high penalty …, this can help,” a comma joins two independent clauses incorrectly. The final example is also unfinished. Practise complete sentence structures, check singular and plural references, and use a full stop or a suitable conjunction between independent clauses.

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