Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Academic Practice Accelerator · 2026-10-01

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

We no longer need to have animals kept in zoos, so zoos should be closed.

Do you agree or disagree?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

These days few people have an opinion that animals should be kept free in their natural habitat and close all the zoos. I compeletely disagree, in my opininon zoos are not only source of entertainment for children belonging to any socioecnomic background but also it is economical source of massive learning for growing children.

In our society most of the parents are working and during weekdays they donot have enough time for their children, so their major preference is to take their kids outside for fun activities. For this purpose, zoos are most favourable choice. Parents can easily afford this entertainment without being financially over burdened. It is a common observation that people visting such places belongs to different social status but their motive is same which is to have fun with their children.

Besides this, nowadays schools are not following conventional teaching methods for better learning. For instance if a teacher is discussing a reptile chapter in a class, he or she wants to show them real animals so that students can grasp this for life long. Tutors wants to get their children better understanding and memorization. Thats why many schools take their pupils to zoos so that when they see animals with their own eyes and learn more about their habitat and eating habits.

In conclusion, zoos should not be closed. I think they should be funded by government because play a pivotal role in entertainment and cognitative learning of our children.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

For this criterion, you addressed the task partially by stating your disagreement and focusing mainly on the benefits of zoos for children and education. However, your response has a notable limitation: it is 6 words short of the 250-word minimum requirement. Furthermore, your position is stated clearly at the beginning, but the development of ideas remains somewhat limited and repetitive. For instance, while you mention that parents can afford trips and that schools use zoos for learning about reptiles, these ideas are under-developed and lack extension or broader societal examples. To reach a higher level, you need to write slightly more to meet the word count, expand your supporting arguments beyond just children's entertainment and school trips, and ensure all parts of the prompt are fully explored.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

Your essay demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a recognisable introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. You make use of basic cohesive devices such as 'For this purpose', 'Besides this', and 'For instance' to guide the reader through your arguments. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical and referencing is occasionally unclear, as seen in the conclusion where you write 'because play a pivotal role' with a missing subject pronoun. Paragraphing is used adequately to separate distinct ideas, such as parental convenience in one paragraph and educational benefits in another. To improve further and achieve a stronger sense of progression, you should integrate more sophisticated and flexible cohesive devices, ensure seamless transitions between sentences, and check that every sentence has clear internal referencing.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task and attempt some less common lexical items such as 'socioecnomic', 'financially over burdened', and 'cognitative learning'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors that detract from the quality of your writing, including 'compeletely', 'isininon', 'socioecnomic' (socioeconomic), 'visting' (visiting), and 'cognitative' (cognitive). These errors do not completely impede communication, but they place some difficulty on the reader. To move up to a higher band, you need to expand your control of less common vocabulary, ensure correct word forms and spellings, and use more precise collocations when expressing your opinions and examples.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures such as conditional and relative clauses, for example, 'so that students can grasp this for life long'. However, your writing contains frequent errors in grammar and punctuation, particularly missing articles ('in opininon', 'is economical source'), incorrect verb forms ('donot', 'visting belongs', 'Tutors wants'), and preposition usage. These grammatical inaccuracies can cause some difficulty for the reader. To reach the next band, you should aim for a higher proportion of error-free sentences, improve your control over subject-verb agreement and article placement, and refine your complex sentence structures to ensure grammatical accuracy throughout.

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

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