Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-09-21

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)

People have different priorities in life. Some people are more inclined towards working and want to excel in life. On the other hand, some people want balance between work and life and they prefer to have ample time so they can enjoy their hobbies. In my opinion, having time for ourselves gives us opportunity to reset and perform well.

People who consider work as most important are usually goal oriented and gets a sense of achievement from accomplishing their goals. They also enjoy working so they do not feel a need of having free time for activities. As a result, they sometime get overwhelmed by work and do not have time to relax. They also have less time for family and friends and can occasionally feel isolated.

On the other hand, there are also people who work just to earn for their living. They consider it just a mere source of income. They feel more happy to have their own time for their hobbies. They put their full efforts during the working hours. Outside the working hours, they like to have plans where they can read, watch movies and do whatever they want. Many countries also promotes work life balance and the employees do not work out side office hours In this way, they get time to relax and do not get bored or frustrated by teh same daily routine. As per a study, people who usually takes break between can better focus then people who work continuously.

To conclude, both of these prespective have their own pros and cons. People who work more might achieve more in life but at the cost of feeling alone and over worked. While people who maintain balance have chances of excelling as well as they also enjoy life on their own terms. Work is important but we should have spare time for ourseleves.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

Your response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both perspectives regarding work and leisure priorities, and you clearly state your own opinion in the introduction and conclusion. You present relevant ideas, such as how work-centric individuals gain a sense of achievement while potentially risking isolation, whereas hobby-focused individuals seek a healthy work-life balance. However, some of your arguments remain slightly under-developed and would benefit from further extension or specific examples. For instance, mentioning the study regarding breaks is a good idea, but it lacks detail. Overall, you have covered the requirements of Task 2 adequately, establishing a clear position throughout the essay.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

Your essay has a coherent overall arrangement with a logical progression from introduction to body paragraphs and conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different viewpoints, such as work-focused individuals and those who prioritize hobbies. You utilize basic cohesive devices such as 'On the other hand', 'To conclude', and 'As a result' to connect your ideas. However, cohesion is sometimes a bit mechanical or repetitive, and referencing can occasionally feel slightly abrupt. To reach a higher band, you could employ a wider variety of more sophisticated cohesive markers and ensure smoother transitions between sentences and paragraphs.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items and phrases such as 'goal oriented', 'sense of achievement', and 'work life balance'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors, including 'gets' instead of 'get', 'sometime' instead of 'sometimes', 'prespective' instead of 'perspective', and 'teh' instead of 'the'. Additionally, phrases like 'earn for their living' or 'have plans where they can' feel slightly unnatural. These lexical errors do not impede overall communication, but they restrict your score to a solid Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You display a mix of simple and complex sentence structures throughout your response, using relative clauses ('people who work continuously') and conditional ideas effectively. There are, however, several grammatical and punctuation errors present. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('Many countries also promotes' and 'people who usually takes break'), missing articles, and typos such as 'out side' and 'for ourseleves'. While these errors do not prevent your message from being understood, they occur frequently enough to prevent you from achieving a higher band. Focusing on careful proofreading of grammatical agreements and spelling would greatly enhance your accuracy.

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

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