Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-09-28

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 5.0)

In recent decades, several nations people do not recycle their rubbish since a lack of awareness in their places, the government do not pay attention on the rubbish rules. Authorities should take actions against this issue. This essay will discuss about this problem and how they can face many challenges.

First and foremost, many people think that there are no awareness in society about rubbish and how it can affect them. This is because, people do not take seriously this problem since they think that they do not need to recycle rubbish. For this reason, numerous diseases spread in the environment such as bacteria, fungal infection. It can affect to humans even many people are suffering from health concerns because they did not maintain hygiene. A clear example for this is that many countries are not well-maintained and recycling facilities are not available in their areas. Consequently, people are facing skin diseases since there people do not give importance to recycle.

On the other hand, several developed countries recycle process system better then others. The main reason for this is that there governing bodies made rules like it is mandatory that citizens should deposit their waste into municipal collection vehicles so that it can be directed to recycling facilities. For instance, Switzerland is the most beautiful country in the world because there road and streets are cleaned.

In conclusion, nowadays people do not know about what they should do with waste how to recycle rubbish, it can affect their health and the environment. Conversely, many countries are very sophisticated and local people participate in recycling process.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.0
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.0

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt—explaining why people do not recycle as much as they could and suggesting solutions—although the development of ideas is limited. In the introduction, the writer outlines causes such as a lack of awareness and poor government enforcement, and attempts to discuss challenges. Body paragraph one explores the lack of awareness and links it to health concerns, mentioning that 'many countries are not well-maintained and recycling facilities are not available.' Body paragraph two touches upon government rules by contrasting developed countries with others, citing Switzerland as an example. However, some ideas remain slightly repetitive or under-developed, particularly regarding the specific actions authorities should take. Despite these limitations, the position is generally clear and all prompt requirements are touched upon, aligning well with the Band 5.5 to 6.0 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The essay displays a basic overall organisation with distinct paragraph breaks, moving from an introduction to body paragraphs discussing causes and solutions, and concluding with a summary. However, progression is frequently hindered by awkward transitions and confusing referencing. For instance, the phrase 'First and foremost, many people think that there are no awareness in society' introduces a vague idea, and cohesive devices are often mechanical or misused, as seen in 'On the other hand' to introduce a completely different point about developed countries rather than an opposing argument. Furthermore, referencing pronouns are sometimes unclear, such as 'there people do not give importance' where 'there' is misused. These issues place the response firmly in the Band 5 category.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The lexical resource is limited and heavily restricted by frequent word choice and collocation errors. The student attempts some topic-specific vocabulary related to the environment, such as 'recycling facilities', 'municipal collection vehicles', and 'rubbish', but struggles with accurate collocation and word forms. Examples include 'there are no awareness' instead of 'there is no awareness', 'pay attention on' instead of 'pay attention to', and 'there road and streets are cleaned' instead of 'their roads and streets are clean'. Spelling and basic lexical errors, such as 'governing bodies made rules like it is mandatory', create noticeable strain for the reader at times, reflecting a typical Band 5 performance.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The grammatical range is restricted primarily to simple and attempted complex sentences, the latter of which are frequently faulty. There is a high frequency of grammatical errors throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('several nations people do not recycle', 'the government do not pay attention'), missing auxiliary verbs, and incorrect prepositions. Run-on sentences and comma splices also occur, such as in the opening sentence: 'In recent decades, several nations people do not recycle their rubbish since a lack of awareness in their places, the government do not pay attention on the rubbish rules.' These persistent errors cause difficulty for the reader and prevent the writing from reaching a Band 6.

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

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