Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-08-28

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)

People, in many countries, do not recycle their rubbish as much as they could. Most of the time they do not even consider recycling because they are not aware of the process of recycling.

One of the main reasons is that they do not have awareness to do recycling, or how they can use same things for different purposes, or how they can covert their rubbish into a useful thing. For instance, I talked about recycling to one of my colleage and she didn't know anything about recycling, as how we can do it or which things can be recycled.

Another reason why people are not into recycling is, less resources to do recycling and manageing the waste. There are not separate dustbins on the streets for the items which could be recycled. Furthermore, there is not a management team which could manage all the waste and make it useful again. For example, sometimes i do have things which could be recycled but I do not find any bin or space to put that, so I mostly put that in the same bin in which I keep the items which can not be recycled.

In my opinion, the government should run awareness programs on television or do seminars on recycling. Furthermore, the government should do something to manage all the waste materials and it should provide separate bin for recycling items or rubbish, so that industries which are responsible for recycling can collect everything from the city or the country and do their work.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: reasons for low recycling rates and potential solutions. The ideas are relevant, such as the lack of public awareness and the absence of infrastructure. However, the development is somewhat basic. For instance, the suggestion for government intervention is a good start but lacks depth; explaining how awareness programs might specifically change behavior or how waste management systems could be funded would have strengthened the response. The position is clear throughout, but the overall development remains at a functional level rather than a fully extended one, which is characteristic of a Band 6.0 performance.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is logically organized into clear paragraphs, each focusing on a specific aspect of the prompt. There is a progression of ideas from the problem to the solution. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'One of the main reasons', 'Another reason', and 'Furthermore'. However, some of these transitions feel slightly mechanical or repetitive. Additionally, the referencing is occasionally unclear, such as the use of 'that' in 'I do have things which could be recycled but I do not find any bin or space to put that'. Despite these minor issues, the overall structure is coherent and easy to follow.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks variety and precision. You rely on basic terms like 'rubbish', 'things', and 'do'. There are some errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'covert their rubbish' (convert) and 'manageing' (managing). While the meaning is always clear, the range of vocabulary is limited, and there is little attempt to use less common or more sophisticated lexical items. To improve, focus on using more precise terminology related to environmental issues and waste management to demonstrate a wider range of vocabulary.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, such as 'I talked about recycling to one of my colleage' (colleague), 'there is not a management team' (there is no), and 'provide separate bin' (provide separate bins). Punctuation is generally functional, but there are some awkward phrasings that interrupt the flow. The errors do not impede communication, but they are frequent enough to prevent a higher score. Increasing the variety of complex structures while ensuring subject-verb agreement would help improve this score.

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

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