Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-10-22

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 5.0)

I agree that smoking Should be banned.And should be illegal because it causes a lot of serious illnesses. Smoking does not only affect the person who smokes but also the people that surround the person smoking. Smoking does not only affect the person who smokes but also the people that surround them.There are a lot of children get hospitalized because of pneumonia caused by A family member that smokes around children, children who gets to smell the smoke are called second hand smoker. It affects the children more than it affects the smoker itself. Therefore I agree that smoking should be illegal and should have Punishment whenever someone gets caught smoking.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

You state a clear position—“I agree that smoking should be banned”—and give a relevant reason: smoking can harm people nearby, particularly children. The example of children being hospitalised with pneumonia also supports your concern about second-hand smoke. However, the response addresses the task only minimally: it gives little explanation of how smoking causes serious illness, offers no developed example or evidence, and does not consider the implications of making smoking illegal. The repeated sentence about harm to people around smokers also limits the development of your argument. The response is 111 words, below the required 250. To strengthen your answer, explain your main reasons in separate paragraphs, develop a specific example, and briefly address a possible counterargument before concluding.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

Your ideas are relevant and there is a basic sequence from your opinion, to the effects on others, and then to your conclusion. “Therefore” helps signal the final point. However, the response has no paragraphing and little overall progression: the sentence about smoking affecting people nearby is repeated almost word for word, and the discussion moves quickly from second-hand smoke to punishment without explaining the connection. Some referencing is also unclear, as “them” and “the smoker itself” do not consistently identify who is being discussed. Organise the response into an introduction, body paragraphs with one main point each, and a conclusion. Use linking phrases to show relationships between developed ideas rather than relying on repetition.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use basic vocabulary relevant to the topic, including “serious illnesses,” “hospitalized,” and “second hand smoker,” so your main meaning is generally understandable. However, the range is limited and several expressions are repetitive or imprecise, especially repeated uses of “affect” and “a lot.” “Second hand smoker” is not the natural term for a person exposed to smoke, and “gets to smell the smoke” does not clearly express the health risk. More precise topic vocabulary would help you explain your argument and avoid repeating the same words. For example, you could use “passive smoker” or “person exposed to second-hand smoke,” and describe smoking as increasing the risk of respiratory disease.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You communicate your main position using mostly simple sentence patterns, and the final sentence attempts to connect a conclusion with a consequence. However, the range is limited, and errors in sentence construction and agreement sometimes make the meaning less clear. For example, “There are a lot of children get hospitalized” needs a grammatical structure such as “Many children are hospitalised,” while “children who gets” has a subject–verb agreement error. The opening also contains a sentence fragment: “And should be illegal because…” Capitalisation and spacing around sentence boundaries are inconsistent. Practise combining ideas with accurate clauses, and check agreement, articles, and punctuation when editing.

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