Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-18

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people say that the main environmental problem of our time is the loss of particular species of plants and animals. Others say that there are more important environmental problems.

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

While some individual believe that the extinction of particular breeds of plants and animals is a prime environmental problem of our current time, I believe that there are more severe environmental problems, such as pollution, that are even more concerning than loss of flora and funa, and animals because it leads to several health dieases.

Some species of animals and plants contribute high value in the environment because they are used in developing medicine and some animals protect the wildlife from wild predators, but these species are in endanger. The environment is being changed due to environmental crisis, which eventually leads to such conditions that are not sufficient for the well-being of such species, and some animals are being killed because of the demand of their body parts. For example, Tempo is a specie of elephants who protect weak creatures from the wild animals, but they are getting killed becuase of their valuable teeth. If they continue to die, the medicial sector will no longer get the benefits from them.

However, pollution is one of the major deterimental causes of the environment that need more attention because it is affecting the health of human beings. The harmful bacteria that can be found in the waste, increases the chances of serious health conditions, especially on the people who live in the such polluted areas. I believe that if pollution continues and not action is taken on removing it, it will effect huge number of population, and could be the reason to next penadmic. For example, people who live in these polluted areas are more likely to be a infected person; while metting others, they would transfer bacteria and gradually number of people will be effected.

In conclusion, although saving some species are crucial, I believe that protecting the environment in such a way that human beings can also be saved is a vaiable solution.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the view that saving plant and animal species is the main environmental problem and the view that other issues, such as pollution, are more pressing. The student also presents a clear personal opinion throughout the essay. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive. For instance, the discussion on animal extinction relies on a non-standard example ('Tempo is a specie of elephants') and vague generalisations about medical benefits. Similarly, the pollution argument jumps abruptly to unscientific claims about pandemics. While the main requirements of the task are met, the support and extension of ideas remain at a Band 6 level due to under-development and lapses in logic.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay displays a generally coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph structure, moving from an introduction to two body paragraphs and a conclusion. However, cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or misused, such as the awkward transition 'while metting others' in the third paragraph. Referencing is occasionally unclear, as seen in the ambiguous pronoun use in 'so on the people who live in the such polluted areas'. Paragraphing is used, but the internal logical progression within the body paragraphs is occasionally disrupted by abrupt shifts in focus. These issues place the response firmly in the Band 6 category.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student attempts a range of vocabulary relevant to the topic, such as 'extinction', 'environmental crisis', and 'detrimental causes'. However, there are numerous word choice and spelling errors throughout the text, including 'dieases' for diseases, 'funa' for fauna, 'in endanger' for endangered, 'becuase' for because, 'medicial' for medical, 'vaiable' for viable, and 'effected' instead of affected. Additionally, the phrase 'a infected person' contains a basic article error. While the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the general meaning, the frequency of lexical and morphological inaccuracies prevents the score from reaching a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures (e.g., 'If they continue to die, the medicial sector will no longer get the benefits'). Nevertheless, grammatical accuracy is weak. There are frequent errors in subject-verb agreement and article usage, such as 'some individual believe', 'a specie of elephants', and 'the next penadmic'. Punctuation and preposition errors also occur, including 'live in the such polluted areas' and 'not action is taken'. Although these errors do not completely obscure meaning, they are frequent enough to typify the Band 5 descriptor.

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