Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-08-31

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 5.5)

Smoking is one of the leading main causes of serious illnesses in the world. Given the health risk it give, I strongly believe that it should be made illegal.

On the one hand, chemicals from cigarettes and tobacco have bad effects on both first hand and second hand smokers. People who are addicted in smoking is prone to have lungs cancer, heart disease and respiratory infections. For instance, children or young kids who inhale the cigarette smoke in a household might suffer from respiratory issues.

Another important reason is that it requires a long-term treatment. Governments allocate more of the expenditures in the health care field treating these kinds of illnesses. Moreover, preventing the use of cigarette-tobacco as early as now will make the future generations stop from smoking. It will lead to a substantial decrease of infected people.

In conclusion, I strongly agree that smoking must be banned and made illegal as it will only cause bad effects to individuals.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 250 words, reaching only 161 words. This significantly impacts the development of ideas. While you clearly state your position in the introduction and conclusion, the supporting arguments are underdeveloped. For instance, the point regarding government expenditure is mentioned but not fully explored or supported with sufficient detail. To reach a higher band, you must expand your arguments with more depth, examples, and analysis to ensure the topic is fully addressed as required by the task instructions.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. You use basic cohesive devices such as 'On the one hand', 'Moreover', and 'In conclusion' to link your ideas. However, the progression of ideas is somewhat limited due to the brevity of the text. The transition between the health risks and the economic argument could be smoother. To improve, focus on using a wider variety of cohesive devices and ensuring that each paragraph contains a well-developed central idea that flows naturally into the next.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, but it lacks the range and precision required for higher bands. You use some relevant terms like 'respiratory infections' and 'expenditures', but there are also some inaccuracies, such as 'addicted in smoking' (should be 'addicted to') and 'infected people' (which is not the most precise term for those suffering from smoking-related illnesses). To improve, try to incorporate more sophisticated collocations and topic-specific vocabulary, and ensure that your word choices are grammatically accurate in context.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally hinder the flow. Examples include 'the health risk it give' (should be 'gives'), 'People who are addicted in smoking is prone to have' (should be 'are prone to having'), and 'stop from smoking' (should be 'stop smoking'). While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to lower the score. Focus on subject-verb agreement and correct preposition usage to improve your accuracy.

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

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