Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-10-05

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)

The issue of smoking become a widely discussed subject in today's world. While some people hold the opinion that it brings numerous advantages. Others, argue that it has certain drawbacks that cannot be overlooked.I compeletly agree with this statement. Although this essay will discuss about the causes of the smoking in detail and provide logical conclusion.

To begin with, there are several reasons why smooking is considered to be illegal. Firstly, it may harm the lungs of the people by producing poisonous smoke in the body which can cause the infection of the lungs. For instance, according to BBC news, now a days most of the lungs patients are in the hospital due to smooking. Secondly, poor regulation and exessive use can harm both individual and socities. Hence, smooking has negative impacts on peoples and communities. Therefore, it necessary to hanlde smooking with proper control and responsiblity.

On the other hand, critics believe that smooking has several advantages.It plays a significant role in improving and freshing the mindset of the peoples by providing sense of happiness. For example, according to ARY news, peoples can feel good and unwind themselves after work by smoking. Therefore, this side argues that it has positive impact on personel life.

In conclusion, the debate sorrounding this topic likely to continue as both side have strong arguments. However, after analyzing the both views it can be said that smoking causes serious illness. Therefore,the governments and people should work to gether to ensure smoking elimination from the society for the betterment of the future generations.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the task only partially. While you take a clear position by stating 'I compeletly agree with this statement', the development of your ideas is limited and under-developed. For example, when you mention that smoking causes 'infection of the lungs' or that it helps in 'freshing the mindset', the supporting details are brief and rely on vague references to news sources rather than fully elaborated arguments. Furthermore, your introduction mentions that the essay will discuss 'causes of the smoking', but the prompt actually asks whether smoking should be made illegal, leading to some slight confusion in focus. To move up to a higher band, you need to extend your main ideas with more substantial explanations, concrete examples, and maintain a fully relevant discussion throughout the essay.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

Your essay displays some overall organisation, with clear paragraph breaks separating your introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. However, the progression of ideas is sometimes hindered by mechanical or repetitive use of cohesive devices. You rely heavily on transitional markers such as 'To begin with', 'Firstly', 'Secondly', 'On the other hand', and 'In conclusion' to link your thoughts, which can feel formulaic rather than natural. Additionally, referencing within sentences occasionally lacks precision, such as 'both side have strong arguments' where the connection to previous clauses could be smoother. To achieve a higher band, ensure that your logical progression is well-managed throughout and that cohesive devices are used more flexibly and less predictably.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

Your vocabulary is limited but minimally adequate for the task. You attempt some less common words, but there are noticeable errors in word choice, word form, and spelling that occasionally distract the reader. For instance, you misspell words like 'compeletly', 'smooking', 'exessive', 'hanlde', 'sorrounding', and 'togather'. Additionally, phrases like 'freshing the mindset of the peoples' and 'personel life' demonstrate awkward collocation and incorrect word forms. To improve your lexical score, you should expand your range of vocabulary, pay closer attention to spelling accuracy, and use words in more natural collocations appropriate for an academic response.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You demonstrate a limited range of sentence structures, relying mostly on simple sentences alongside a few faulty attempts at complex structures. There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including issues with subject-verb agreement and articles, such as 'The issue of smoking become', 'most of the lungs patients', 'it necessary to hanlde', and 'this topic likely to continue'. Punctuation errors are also present, such as missing spaces after periods (e.g., 'overlooked.I', 'advantages.It'). These frequent errors can cause some difficulty for the reader. To reach a higher band, you need to increase your control over complex sentence patterns and significantly reduce the frequency of basic grammatical mistakes.

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

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