Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-11-04

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)

In recent years, stress is now regarded as a vital problem in many societies. Some people believe that nowadays people suffer from more stress than they did in the past, while others argue that the past generations people were under more pressure, but the ideo os suffering from stress did not exist. From my perspective, I believe that people are more stressful than they were in past because of expense, occupation and basic needs.

On the one hand, people were under pressure not in stress in the past. Firstly, people had no stress about occupation. In the past, there was less competition in the jobs because there were less people educated. This is because, schools were less in the cities and people had not much money to afford education. For example, people think it is unnecessary to educate children in the past, young adults started working from their early age instead of studying. This results in less education and low pressure about occupation. Secondly, less money required. In the past, expense was much lower that people can afford food, shelter and basic needs. They had no stress of high income because they only want to satisfy their basic needs. As a result, they earn much and pay less.

On the other hand, I believe that people are more stressful today than in the past. Nowadays, all things are becoming expensive. People have to earn much to satisfy their quality of life. Because of this, people are more stressful about earning a good income as there is massive number of competition in occupations. Moreover, employment opportunities are lower. The population is increasing day by day which reduces employment opportunities. For example, in India, the half of the population are unemployed because there is high number of population and less employment opportunities. As a result, they cannot satisfy their basic needs and have no jobs.

In conclusion, although people were under pressure in the past, I believe people are more stressful today than in the past because they cannot afford their basic needs and have a lot of stress regarding occupation and income.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You discuss both views and state a consistent opinion: you argue that people today face greater stress because of costs, work and basic needs. The two body paragraphs also give relevant reasons, including job competition and rising expenses. However, the past-generation view is not fully explained: the claim that people had “no stress about occupation” is broad, and the response does not consider pressures they may have faced despite lower education or living costs. Some support is also unclear, such as “they earn much and pay less,” and the India example is asserted without evidence or qualification. Develop each side more carefully and explain how the examples support your comparison. The response contains 11 words copied from the task prompt, which are excluded from the reported word count.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two views, and a conclusion that restates your position. Signposting such as “On the one hand,” “On the other hand,” and “In conclusion” helps readers follow the broad direction. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes mechanical, with repeated “Firstly,” “Secondly,” and “As a result,” rather than clear links showing how each point develops. Some connections are also difficult to follow: the explanation about education and job pressure does not clearly establish that earlier generations experienced less pressure overall. Improve cohesion by linking each example directly to its claim and using clearer references between sentences, while varying the transitions.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “competition,” “employment opportunities,” “population,” and “basic needs,” so the main ideas are generally understandable. However, the range is limited and several word choices or collocations are noticeably inaccurate or repetitive. For example, “stressful” describes a person or situation, not the amount of stress people experience; “vital problem” is not a natural way to describe a serious social issue; and “less money required” is unclear. There are also spelling errors such as “ideo os.” Build a more precise set of topic phrases and check collocations and spelling. This would make your comparisons clearer and reduce the effort required to interpret some sentences.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentences, using structures such as “because” clauses and “although” in the conclusion. However, control is inconsistent, and errors occur frequently enough to make some sentences difficult to interpret. For example, “the past generations people were under more pressure” has an unclear noun structure, while “the half of the population are unemployed” has problems with article use and subject–verb agreement. In “people had no stress about occupation,” the tense and phrasing of the surrounding explanation also need more careful control. Practise forming accurate comparisons and checking agreement, articles, and sentence boundaries. Shorter, well-controlled sentences would help before you add more complex structures.

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