Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-10-25

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 cause of many serious medical, health and mental problems, and there should be proper steps or actions against this problems in our growing societies and cities.

As i have heard this in every or almost most of the media platforms, and Entertaiment industries, the smooking is considered and flagged as fatal reasons for some serious health problem.

There is surge in these addictions and consumption of drugs and additive substances specially smoking things like cigrate, Vape, sisha, hoqa etc, famous names in our country. Modern youth are tend to rely on these things for making themselves stimulated, relaxed and mood fresher.

In our country their is law for selling and purcashing of addictive things by underage and small kids, the law is there, but in small tuck shops and small cabins in mahala or in small passing or in village small shop like our village small shop, there is no law applicable, at least it looks like there is no law, anyone can buy cigerate or other addictive substance with verification of their age and reason. So instead of making this illegal, which seems a direct solution for the problem, we can improve the implementation the available laws to limit it our of youg and adolsence youth and give awareness to senoirs and matured persion about the effects.

The example for this is will the guns, instead of not allowing to everyone, as there may be need for someones, make it not accessible like they are from common and underage people.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You give a relevant, identifiable position: rather than making smoking illegal, you favour enforcing existing age restrictions and raising awareness. The discussion of underage sales and the comparison with gun access support this view. However, the response only partly addresses the question because it gives limited explanation of why smoking should or should not be illegal for adults, despite the prompt focusing on serious illness and prohibition. The health effects are mentioned generally, without a specific illness or a developed example, and the final comparison is not fully explained. To strengthen the response, state your degree of agreement clearly in the introduction, then develop two reasons with specific explanation and examples, including how your proposed measures would reduce harm.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a basic overall structure: it introduces the issue, discusses media and youth use, presents a policy argument, and ends with an example. This gives the reader a general sense of your reasoning. However, progression between points is not always clear. The opening paragraph is very brief, while the long paragraph about laws combines current enforcement, proposed alternatives, and awareness without clear separation. Linking phrases such as “So instead of” show a relationship, but some connections are difficult to follow, particularly the final sentence comparing smoking laws with guns. Use a clearer paragraph plan, with one main idea per paragraph, and explain how each example supports your position. More precise referencing would also help readers follow what “these things” and “this” refer to.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You attempt vocabulary relevant to the topic, including “addictions,” “consumption,” “implementation,” “verification,” and “effects.” This shows some effort to discuss public health and regulation rather than relying only on very basic terms. However, the range is limited and many word choices or combinations are inaccurate, which sometimes makes the meaning difficult to interpret. Examples include “fatal reasons,” “additive substances,” “mood fresher,” and “law applicable.” Spelling errors such as “smooking,” “cigrate,” and “purcashing” also reduce clarity. Build a more reliable set of topic-specific collocations and check spelling carefully; for instance, describe smoking as a “cause of serious illness” and refer to “enforcing age restrictions” rather than a law being “applicable.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and longer sentence forms, including a conditional comparison beginning “instead of making this illegal” and a sentence explaining the law on sales to minors. However, complex sentences are often difficult to control, and frequent errors in sentence construction and basic grammar can make the reader work to understand your meaning. For example, “Smoking is cause” is missing an article, “there is law” needs an article, and “their is law” confuses the subject form. Agreement and sentence structure are also problematic in “Modern youth are tend to rely” and “The example for this is will the guns.” Practise building accurate subject–verb patterns and separating long ideas into complete sentences before adding subordinate clauses.

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

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