Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-09-12

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people regard work as the most important thing in life and have little interest in anything else. Other people are more enthusiastic about their hobbies and leisure interests than their jobs.

Discuss both these attitudes 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 the present, there is a huge debate running whether working is the most significant thing to do in life and others claim that having hobbies and other interests is more important. From my perspective i beleive that people should take hobbies more seriously in a daily life.

From one hand, jobs are really important especially for men to provide a decent living for his own family, making it as the first important thing to do basically everyday and disconnecting from the world around you will cause negative effects on a individual especially in a psychological way. For instance, hard working daily won't only be tiring but repeating the same work will make the brain feel lost in a loop, and for a negative psychological effect, this will make him neglect his basics needs or desires to practice something and will make him more like a machine.

In contradiction, it is strongly beleived that hobbies and interests have great positive effects on a human psychology and his surroundings. Eventhough the importance of jobs for Providing a life for a family, a wife and a her husband or even kids need to do some activities together to tighten their bond, for exemple, drewing, painting, going for hickes or exploring something new at least once a week will make individuals feel a releif after spending hours or days working, this will make a brain and a body relax and in addition to tha, social relationships will be tight and strong after feeling a person sharing interest with another.

To conclude, people argue mostly whether jobs are more important in a human's life, in my opinion i beleive that eventhough jobs are important to provide for a decent living for an individual or a family, hobbies are more important to make a person feel at ease and releif after a long journey, even the surroundings deserve a tight relationship whether with a husband, father or siblings

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both attitudes towards work and leisure, and provides a clear personal opinion that hobbies are more important for overall well-being. The ideas are generally relevant, but some points tend to over-generalize or lack fully developed supporting evidence. For instance, the discussion on psychological effects touches on valid points such as feeling 'lost in a loop' like a machine, but these arguments remain somewhat limited and repetitive. The position is maintained throughout the essay and the conclusion reiterates the stance effectively. According to the Band 7 descriptors, the candidate addresses all parts of the task with a clear position, though some ideas could have been extended more deeply with concrete real-world examples.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, moving logically from an introduction to body paragraphs discussing work and hobbies respectively, and finishing with a conclusion. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. The candidate uses standard transition phrases like 'From one hand' (which contains a collocation error, instead of 'On the one hand') and 'In contradiction', which affects the smooth flow of ideas. Referencing is occasionally unclear, such as pronoun usage in 'for his own family' followed later by plural shifts. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct arguments, but the internal logical progression within paragraphs requires tighter connective tissue to achieve a higher band.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The candidate demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'psychological effect', 'disconnecting', and 'explore something new'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, such as 'beleive' instead of believe, 'hickes' instead of hikes, 'drewing' instead of drawing, and 'releif' instead of relief. Additionally, lexical collocations are occasionally awkward, such as 'tighten their bond' or 'tight and strong' when referring to relationships. These lexical slips and spelling inaccuracies indicate a Band 6 level, as vocabulary is sufficient to communicate meaning but contains recurring errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting relative clauses and conditional structures. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several punctuation and capitalisation slips, such as 'From my perspective i beleive', and structural errors like subject-verb agreement or pronoun consistency ('for a family, a wife and a her husband'). Run-on sentences and long, comma-spliced constructions also appear, such as in the final paragraph. While the errors do not severely impede overall communication, their frequency prevents the essay from reaching Band 7. The grammatical control aligns well with the Band 6 descriptor, showing a mix of structures alongside persistent non-systematic errors.

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

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