Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-08-23

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

The most important aim of science should be to improve people’s lives. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement? Give reasons for your answers and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

 

Student answer (Band 4.5)

Although taking risk is a normal human behaviour, there are some positive and negative aspects for it. From my perspective, I believe it is worth taking some risks when it is necessary in our personal as well as in our professional lives.

Admittedly, there are some benefits of taking risks, its quite essential, I think, to make progress. First of all, major advantage of taking risk is it creates new opportunities. If we do not take risk in student life or in career, we cannot target higher and dream big. To get a better lifestyle, students take risk and participate in tougher exams as well as employees take preparation for a better job. Moreover, risky jobs also pay well. Secondly, there is a perspective that if you do not take risk, you will stay in the same workplace as before. After a few years, you will lose motivation though you had some potentials. Thirdly, a research shows, people who became great and achieved more, took risk more than normal people. Elon Musk, for instance, took a tougher decision in life when he had to invest on both of his car and satellite business. He could have invested in one of them and ignore other but for that decision, he is one of the richest persons now as his both companies did some great innovations in the industries.

Nevertheess, despite having some positive aspects, there are some negative sides too. One reason is that if you take risk while driving in highway, competing with others, there is a high chance of accident. We can see regular death news on media where people took risk and did accidents though the number is quite low. Another reason can be, people who take risks, do work more, try more and sometimes if they fail or do not get success, they become more demotivated in life. They also think themselves as failure and there will be no future in them. For example, a research was conducted on some people who were very high risk taking person in student life, after failing a few times, they now can not think better and created bad relation with their family members. High risk taking persons, also think it is normal to take risk in everything. If their close persons are not their type, they cannot accept them as friend or family.

To sum up, it can be reiterated that though there are some disadvantages, when necessary, especially in personal and job life, taking risk is mandatory. I believe high risk taking person make better progress in their life.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 2.0

The response is completely off-topic. The prompt asks for a discussion on whether the most important aim of science should be to improve people's lives. However, the student has written an essay entirely about the pros and cons of 'taking risks' in personal and professional life. Because the student failed to address the specific topic provided, the response cannot be assessed as a successful attempt at the task. While the essay is well-structured and follows a logical format, it does not engage with the prompt at all, which is a fundamental requirement for Task Achievement.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

Despite the off-topic content, the essay demonstrates a clear structure. The student uses paragraphing effectively, with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'First of all', 'Moreover', 'Secondly', and 'Nevertheless' are used to link ideas, although some transitions are slightly mechanical. The progression of ideas within the paragraphs is logical, even though the ideas themselves are irrelevant to the actual prompt. The use of referencing is generally clear, and the overall arrangement of the text is coherent.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses a sufficient range of vocabulary to express their ideas clearly. There are some attempts at less common collocations, such as 'human behaviour', 'major advantage', and 'innovations in the industries'. However, there are also some inaccuracies in word choice, such as 'did accidents' instead of 'caused accidents' or 'had some potentials' instead of 'had potential'. While the vocabulary is adequate for the task, it lacks the precision and sophistication required for higher bands. Spelling is generally accurate, but the range is somewhat limited.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors throughout the text, such as missing articles ('take risk' instead of 'take risks'), subject-verb agreement issues ('high risk taking person make'), and punctuation errors. Some sentences are slightly awkward, such as 'they now can not think better and created bad relation'. While these errors do not significantly impede communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent a higher score. The control of complex structures is inconsistent.

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

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