Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-09-11

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)

Rubbish or garbage are essentially people's leftovers, these can have many forms: glass, paper, plastic, etc. Most of them could be recycled and used to produce other products. However, for this to be happened, people need to not just throw their rubbish but to categorize them. Meaning, if you just put out your rubbish in one place it would be hard to recycle. Moreover, recycling is a culture, if people don't have it, you can't have higher percentages of recycling since that people will always grab their all their trash in one place, which make it notoriously recycle. The vast majority of the counties that have the least percentages of recycling have one of this two problems that limits their recycling process: not enough bins and more precisely not having specific bins for each type of trash, the people of that specific country don't know abou recycling. To solve this problem, you must first teach people at young ages about recycling and it's importance to both humans and the nature. Moreover, the government must provide more bins for each type of rubbish for the people to use them. This solutions as simple as they appear have a significant impact on the percentage of recycling in any country. To conclude, recycling is in the first place a culture and daily habits that we must teach about it and use it to protect the nature from pollution and take advantage of it to produce or re-produce other goods that we can use.

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, focusing on the lack of infrastructure and the need for cultural change through education. However, the development is somewhat limited. The explanation of why people do not recycle is a bit repetitive, and the solutions could be more thoroughly explored with specific examples or deeper analysis. While the position is clear, the essay would benefit from more detailed supporting arguments to move beyond a general overview. The response meets the minimum length requirement, but the depth of content is more characteristic of a mid-range band.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into a logical flow, moving from the problem to the solution and a conclusion. Paragraphing is present, though the essay is essentially one large block of text with a brief concluding sentence. Cohesive devices such as 'However', 'Moreover', and 'To conclude' are used to link ideas, but the transitions can feel somewhat mechanical. The referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the sentence '...that people will always grab their all their trash in one place, which make it notoriously recycle.' The overall progression of ideas is coherent, but the lack of distinct paragraph breaks for the body sections hinders the structure.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks variety and precision. There are several instances of awkward phrasing, such as 'notoriously recycle' and 'for this to be happened'. The student uses basic terms like 'rubbish', 'trash', and 'bins' repeatedly. While the meaning is generally clear, there is little attempt to use less common or more sophisticated lexical items. The word choice is functional but does not demonstrate the flexibility or precision required for a higher band score. Improving collocation and using more academic synonyms would significantly enhance this section.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors. Examples include 'Rubbish or garbage are essentially people's leftovers' (subject-verb agreement), 'if people don't have it, you can't have higher percentages' (inconsistent pronoun usage), and 'it's importance' (incorrect use of apostrophe). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with comma splices. While the errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to be noticeable and suggest a lack of control over more complex grammatical forms. A greater focus on proofreading for basic errors would be beneficial.

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