Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-09-27

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)

It is an ongoing debate whether stress is a major issue in contemporary societies or in conventional societies. Many people hold a believe that in present times individuals are more stressed and some opponents think that adults now a days are not much stressed and this idea is just overly expressed. While, i believe individuals in recent times are acctully more stressed becasue of sedendary lifestyles.

On the one hand, many individuals think that now a days a lot of adults are more stressed then there were in past. This is because before few decades society lives a active life, as their lives are drvien largely towards physical hardships; However, in the present era people are living a sedentry lives which disrupts their natural thinking patteren and leads to anxiety among humans. For instance, nowadays many young individuals are just overthinking about future, because they have nothing to do physically;Therefore, their bodies remin in the constant stress.

On the other hand, opponents believe this idea of more stressed current generation is just overly stated because in recent times individuals are less anxious. This is due to the fact that they have many resources and opportunities as compared to older generations. Moreover, they have more facilities and their bodies were not in fight and flight mood as were the individuals were in past stayed, as they need to do more struggle for earning a living. For example, People in past do more hard task for living like collecting woods, but now individuals just earn by using a computer.

In conclusion, there is a pressing concern which is widely argued between two opponent groups. One segment of society believe that in current times individuals are more stressed, while other have a view that older generations were under more pressure. Although previous generations were stressed, I belive todays' generation is under more pressure because of inactive lifestyle.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both views on whether stress is a major modern problem or an exaggerated concept, and includes a clear personal opinion in the introduction and conclusion. Ideas are extended with examples, such as comparing physical hardships of previous generations to the sedentary lifestyles of modern youth. However, some arguments tend to over-generalize and are slightly under-developed in terms of supporting evidence. For instance, the claim that having nothing to do physically leads to constant stress is asserted rather than fully explained. Nevertheless, the main task requirements are met adequately, aligning with the criteria for Band 6.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay is divided into four appropriate paragraphs, providing a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, two body paragraphs discussing opposing views, and a conclusion. Transitional phrases such as 'On the one hand', 'On the other hand', and 'In conclusion' are used to signpost the progression of ideas. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical, with awkward phrasing like 'While, i believe' at the beginning of the text. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and logical links between sentences can feel abrupt due to punctuation errors, such as incorrect semicolon usage ('...physical hardships; However, in the present era...'). This overall organisational structure places the response firmly at Band 6.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'contemporary societies', 'sedentary lifestyles', and 'fight and flight mood'. However, there are numerous noticeable word-choice, spelling, and morphological errors throughout the text, including 'a believe' instead of 'a belief', 'acctully' instead of 'actually', 'becasue' instead of 'because', 'sedendary' instead of 'sedentary', 'patteren' instead of 'pattern', and 'remin' instead of 'remain'. Furthermore, awkward collocations like 'overly stated' instead of 'overstated' appear. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they restrict the lexical score to Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in punctuation, subject-verb agreement, and tense consistency. Examples include 'adults now a days are not much stressed', 'society lives a active life', 'their bodies were not in fight and flight mood as were the individuals were in past stayed', and capitalization errors ('i believe', 'People in past'). Punctuation is frequently misused, especially with commas and semicolons. These frequent errors cause some difficulty for the reader and prevent the response from achieving a higher band, placing it at Band 5.0.

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