Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-08-20

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In some societies, stress is now regarded as a major problem, and it is thought that people suffer from more stress than they did in the past. However, others feel that the amount of stress people have today is exaggerated. They say that previous generations were under more pressure, but the idea of suffering from stress did not exist.

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

You should use your own ideas, knowledge and experience and support your arguments with examples and relevant evidence.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

There is an ongoing debate as to whether stress and anxiety is a new phenomenon and it is affecting modern humans adversely or the people in past has gone through even worse and more stressful situations without knowing any solutions to cope with it. THis essay is an attempt to shed some light on both viewpoints before giving an appropriate opinion.

According to the former statement, there are several convincing factors to justify its arguments. The most prominent one is work pressure and increasing competition. In others words, modern people have are more passionate about collecting materialistic things, assests and properties. In this race of achieving goals, they are working day and night without being worried about their health and rest leading to a more stressful schedule. However, in past people used to balance their professional and personal life giving them enough time to take rest and recreational activities to be stress free. Therefore, it can be said that concern of people about their stress is not exaggerated.

On the other hand, there is no doubt in saying that invent of technology has made the lives of modern people so easy and past people were really deprived of these facilities. Consequently, they were mostly engaged with manual work and they had no automatic machines to do their work. Thus, there stress was also consider

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 250 words, which significantly impacts the development of ideas. While you introduce both viewpoints, the essay is incomplete; it cuts off abruptly in the third paragraph, leaving the second viewpoint under-developed and failing to provide a conclusion or a clear personal opinion. To reach a higher band, you must ensure all parts of the prompt are addressed, including a clear position and a full conclusion. The current lack of completion prevents a thorough discussion of the arguments, resulting in a lower score for task response.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay uses some cohesive devices such as 'According to the former statement', 'The most prominent one', and 'On the other hand' to signal transitions. However, the logical flow is interrupted by the incomplete nature of the text. Paragraphing is attempted, but the final paragraph is truncated, which disrupts the overall structure. To improve, ensure that each paragraph has a clear topic sentence and that ideas are fully developed before moving to the next point. The lack of a concluding paragraph also hinders the overall coherence of the argument.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'phenomenon', 'adversely', 'materialistic', and 'recreational'. However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'invent of technology' (should be 'invention') and 'past people' (should be 'people in the past'). Some phrasing is slightly unnatural, such as 'collecting materialistic things'. To improve, focus on using more precise collocations and ensure that word forms are used correctly in context. Expanding your range of academic vocabulary will also help elevate your score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors, such as 'people in past has gone through' (subject-verb agreement), 'modern people have are more passionate' (incorrect verb usage), and 'there stress' (should be 'their'). Punctuation is generally acceptable, but the frequency of grammatical slips is noticeable. To achieve a higher band, you need to increase the number of error-free sentences and pay closer attention to subject-verb agreement and the correct use of possessive pronouns like 'their' versus 'there'.

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

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