Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-09-25

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)

I think stress is now more common and major problem. There is no doubt that people in past had more problems , but their lifestyle was good enough to make them fresh and free from thoughts. Today, undoubtedly life ismuch easier but their is more stress because the problems are more advanced. Our lifestyle is not very good. Most people are facing stress issues and they dont have any physical activity to make their body fresh. Today in the era of technology and advancement where everything is highly automated, life should be easy. But with the technology, it is causing serious issues.But I am not blaming entrely on technology as it depends on user. As mobile phone has positive and negative both impacts. But if we are using it excessively then it must be an issue. With growing technology we have to make ourself familiar with it. In todays world IT sector is growing. Students are spending more time on TV screens, mobile phone and laptops. Which is obviously causinghealth threats and making them mentally unstable. Today no doubt their are many ways to cure the disease but the overall diseases and health issues are increasing. Most of the diseases are due to stress. Like I am facing stomach issues. I have tried many medicine but still it is not cured because I take much stress. I am a researcher so I spend mostof time on computer doing literature review. With the increase in population, the competition is also increased. Like there are much less jobs available than the graduates. There is a lot of unempolyment. Many graduated students cant even find a job after spending so much money on their education. That is why it is causing some health issues. The excessive use of mobile phones are making us more mentally unstable. In past there were other problems but they were living healthy and natural life. Their body were strong to deal with stress. So I am not saying the past generation life was easy but their lifestyle was healthy so their mental state was good. But nowadays the young people are facing with lot of heath issues because their lifestyle is sedentary and they overthinks.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses both views regarding modern stress compared to the past and provides a personal opinion, which aligns with the requirements of the prompt. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive. The writer touches upon technology, sedentary lifestyles, and job competition, but many of these points remain under-developed or drift into personal anecdotes, such as mentioning specific stomach issues. Furthermore, the organisation of arguments lacks a clear structural progression, leading to a tendency to over-generalize without sufficient supporting evidence. To achieve a higher band, the student needs to extend their arguments with more coherent examples and maintain a formal academic tone throughout. This performance corresponds to Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response is written as a single, massive block of text without proper paragraph breaks, which severely impacts coherence and overall organisation. Paragraphing is a fundamental requirement at Band 6 and above. While the writer attempts to link ideas using basic cohesive devices such as 'However', 'Today', and 'That is why', the lack of structured paragraphs makes the progression of thought difficult to follow. Referencing is also occasionally unclear, for instance, in sentences like 'Which is obviously causing health threats', where the antecedent is ambiguous. Although there is an overall coherent theme, the mechanical use of cohesion and total absence of paragraphing place this text firmly at Band 5.0.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully using terms such as 'sedentary', 'automation', 'literature review', and 'unemployment'. However, there are notable lexical errors and spelling mistakes throughout the text, including 'entrely' instead of entirely, 'unempolyment', 'overthinks', and confusion between 'disease' and 'diseases'. Some word choices are also repetitive or imprecise, such as 'health issues' and 'problems' appearing multiple times. Despite these inaccuracies, the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the general meaning without significantly impeding communication, which is characteristic of Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and conditional structures. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'their is more stress', 'Their body were strong', 'the competition is also increased'), punctuation, and article usage. For instance, phrases like 'the young people are facing with lot of heath issues' and 'mobile phone has positive and negative both impacts' contain noticeable structural errors. While these errors do not completely obscure the message, they occur frequently and prevent the text from reaching a higher band. This performance meets the criteria for Band 5.0.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.