Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-08-17

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)

In different nations, individuals are not recycling their rubbish and waste as they way the can. It hap pens due to lack of infrastructure and and lower knowledge of people regarding recycle initiatives, but it can be resolved through incentives programs and by spreading public awareness.

The primary cause of low recycling rate among numerous nations is because of poor infrastructure in in local society. As many big cities lacks with concern of scarce wastes spreaded in all over the places, that cause some major environmental issues with non-biodegradable waste. That happens due to lack in availibilty of specific sections bins in their area to segregate different kinds

of waste material. Furthermore many people lack & don't have essential informative knowledge about recycling. As results a large amount of waste and rubbish become difficult to recycle by the authorities. Which requires heavy labour force and money to resolve that issue. Consequently it leads to non-recycled waste in large propotion in the society.

However, these major concern of recycling can tackled through various methods. For instance to become more supportive towards the issue of recycling among citizens to partake initiate could easily spread. By launching public awareness campaigns in each and every area of the nation, through physically and promoting it on social media.

plat forms. As result, a large number of people can be influenced through these measures by the higher authorities regarding recycling. Moreover, government should plant public bins of different categories of waste in areas and should impose strict law regarding recycling which contributes a many people to made effort for recycling of wastes.

To conclude, I believe the concern of recycling of waste by the people can resolved by taking strict actions and spreading awareness by the organisations and government, which contributes to long-term development and overall well-being of society.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: reasons for low recycling rates and potential solutions. The ideas are relevant, covering infrastructure and education as causes, and awareness campaigns and government legislation as solutions. However, the development is somewhat uneven. The explanation of why infrastructure is poor is a bit repetitive, and the solutions could be more deeply explored with specific examples. While the position is clear throughout, the overall development of ideas is more characteristic of a Band 6, as some points are stated rather than fully extended with logical depth.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organised into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. There is a logical progression from causes to solutions. However, the use of cohesive devices is often mechanical or inaccurate. For example, 'As results' (should be 'As a result') and 'Which requires' (starting a sentence with a relative pronoun) disrupt the flow. Additionally, some sentences are fragmented, such as 'For instance to become more supportive... could easily spread', which makes the logical connection between ideas difficult to follow. Paragraphing is present but the internal cohesion within paragraphs needs more refinement.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks precision and variety. There are several instances of awkward phrasing and incorrect word choices, such as 'scarce wastes spreaded' and 'plant public bins'. The student attempts to use some topic-specific vocabulary like 'non-biodegradable' and 'segregate', but these are often undermined by grammatical errors or unnatural collocations. Spelling errors, such as 'availibilty' and 'propotion', are noticeable. The range of vocabulary is sufficient to communicate the main ideas, but it does not demonstrate the flexibility required for a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there is a high frequency of grammatical errors throughout. Common issues include subject-verb agreement ('many big cities lacks'), incorrect preposition usage ('in all over the places'), and sentence fragments. Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with the misuse of full stops that break up single thoughts. While the meaning is generally clear, the persistent errors in basic grammar and sentence construction significantly impact the readability of the text.

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

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