Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-09-15

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 highly affected to body and it cause serious deisease,illnesses and should be made illegal because it affects both smokers and people around them . I partly agree with the give statment because smoking is harmful, but completely banningit may not be the best solution.

Firstly smoking can cause many serious illnesses. Regular smokeres have higher risk of developing disease such as ung cancer, heart desease and breathing problems. Morover, passive smoking can also harm non-smokers, especially children. for Ex, children who live with smokers may suffer from breathing difficulties. Therfore, government should take strong action to reduce smoking.

However making smoking completely illegal could create other problems. Many adults are addicted to cigarettes and suddenly banning them could lead to illegal sales and a black market. Instead of a complete ban, government could increase taxes on cigarettes , restrict smoking in public places and make anti-smoking advertiesment. These measures can discourage people from smoking while still allowing adults to make their own choice.

In conclusion, I agree that smoking is extremely harmful and governments should take strict mrasures to control it. however, I do not believe that making it completely illegal is the best solution. Education, higher taxes and strict rstrictions would be more practical ways toreduce smoking

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both the harms of smoking and the potential consequences of making it entirely illegal, presenting a clear position. However, the length requirement of 250 words is not met, as the student's response contains only 210 words. This under-length impacts the full development of ideas, leading to some points remaining somewhat brief and under-developed, such as the discussion on alternative measures. Consequently, Task Achievement is penalised for falling short of the minimum word count, aligning best with a Band 5.5.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The response is organized into four paragraphs with a clear overall structure, including an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'However', 'Moreover', and 'In conclusion' are utilized to guide the reader through the arguments. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct ideas. Nevertheless, referencing and mechanical transitions are occasionally simple or slightly faulty, and progression lacks the depth needed for a higher band. Overall, the organization is coherent enough to meet Band 6 descriptors.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student attempts a range of vocabulary suitable for discussing health and social policies, including terms such as 'passive smoking', 'addicted', 'black market', and 'anti-smoking advertisement'. However, there are numerous spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, such as 'affected' instead of 'effected' or 'harmful', 'deisease', 'smokeres', 'Morover', 'advertiesment', and 'mrasures'. These lexical errors and spelling mistakes reflect Band 5 characteristics, though they do not completely impede overall communication.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as conditional and concessive clauses ('Instead of a complete ban, government could increase...'). However, the text contains frequent grammatical errors, including missing articles ('government should take', 'children who live with smokers'), punctuation issues, and missing capitalization at the beginning of sentences and after periods. While meaning is generally conveyed, the high frequency of grammatical and punctuation errors restricts the score to Band 5.0.

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

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