Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-10-31

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 may cause harmful effects on the body and it should be made illegal in the country. I strongly believe that smoking can cause severe health issues in our body.

Smoking causes lungs issues. If the addicted person takes it beyond the limits, it may have sudden harmful consequences that may be unbearable. For instance, a person who smoke day and night, he is destroying his life on its own. Various medical technologies have proved it that it is injurious for our health. In contrast, adults cannot get rid of it. It has become such a devastating habit that directly affects the lungs. As it is inhaled, it goes down damaging the respiratory organ and bronchitis as well. Within a day or two, it becomes a habit that you cannot leave. After few months, it may change the colour of your lungs into black with so many problems mainly cough.

Moreover, smoking may disrupt the students from not doing studies. Since students are those individuals who can make the bright future of the country. If students are getting addicted to such habit, then the progress will be devastating. For example, my uncle who was a bright student of his school. A group of bad friends just ruined his life. He began to bunk his classes and now has become a great smoker. Although, he is living a wealthy life but health is very crucial. He has lungs problems like asthma, and heart issues as well.

In conclusion, smoking causes serious mental and physical illness. Therefore, it should be banned from our country. Also, the government should build some narcotics control stations for the counselling of smokers.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your position is clear: you strongly agree that smoking should be illegal, and the response gives relevant reasons, including damage to the lungs and effects on students. The example about your uncle also supports the point about peer influence and health consequences. However, some ideas are less fully developed than others. The claim that smoking disrupts students’ studies is not explained in much detail, and the response focuses mainly on individual health rather than explaining why prohibition is preferable to other measures. The conclusion adds counselling stations, but their role alongside a ban could be clarified. To strengthen the response, explain each main reason more fully and connect the examples directly to your argument about making smoking illegal.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, two body paragraphs with separate themes, and a conclusion. The progression from health effects to students and then to the recommendation is generally understandable. However, connections between some sentences are unclear or mechanical. For example, “In contrast” does not introduce a clear contrast, and “Although, he is living a wealthy life” is not well linked to the point about his health. The paragraph about students also shifts quickly from education to your uncle’s health problems. Use linking phrases only when their relationship is clear, and organise each paragraph around one central claim, followed by explanation and a directly relevant example.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a range of topic-related vocabulary, including “addicted,” “devastating,” “respiratory,” and “counselling,” which helps communicate your concerns about smoking. Some less common terms are attempted, but several word choices and collocations are inaccurate or unnatural, such as “lungs issues,” “bunk his classes,” and “narcotics control stations.” Repetition of “smoking,” “health,” and “problems” also limits precision. Aim for more natural combinations and choose terms that express the intended meaning exactly—for example, distinguish between addiction treatment and general counselling, and describe specific health conditions accurately. This would make the argument clearer and more fluent without requiring unnecessarily complex vocabulary.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including conditional and subordinate clauses, as in “If the addicted person takes it beyond the limits…” and “Since students are those individuals…”. Meaning is generally recoverable, but some errors in sentence structure, agreement, articles, and punctuation reduce accuracy. For example, “a person who smoke day and night, he is destroying his life” combines a relative clause with a repeated subject, while “After few months” needs an article. The sentence beginning “Since students are those individuals” is also a fragment because it does not complete the dependent clause. Practise building complete sentences and checking subject–verb agreement, articles, and clause boundaries while retaining your attempts at complex structures.

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