Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-09-28

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)

Professional life and personal interests go hand-in-hand. One should have a proper work-life balance. Whereas, a group of school counter the proposed statement stating the importance of work in the life, while other skeptics believes that people should have more fun in the life and experiment with hobbies and leisure interests than having a monotonous job routine. Both the given statements shall be discussed in the upcoming paragraphs before reaching a logical conclusion.

To begin with, supporting the former given statement people who focus more on their work have more disciplied and stable lifestyle. Folks who follow the same work routine every single day lead a very peacefull life as there is no scope for an individual to involve in notorious acitivities of life but having a burden of work the whole day can't be ingorned. For instance, the ones having daily 9 to 5 job anf only prioritizing the work they do have a fixed daily routine making them less involved into negative activities such as smoking or consuming alcohol with friends on regular basis.

In sharp contrast, humans who listen to their heart and persue hobbies of there intrest makes them a free bird and lead a tension free life. People being absolute care free about there job or work and follow the passion of there own have low cortisol people and less mental burden stands as a paragon here. Following the interesets one have gives a sense of satisfaction and realises a happy hormone inside the body which leads to a feeling of rejuvination to oneself.

In a nutsell, though having a proper 9 to 5 job might lead an individual to have a disciplied life, but according to my opinion i feel people who give less importance to the work and prioritize the hobbies they enjoy performing realises a happy hormone inside the body through which a person can live a long and stress free life.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both perspectives—prioritising work versus hobbies—and clearly states a personal opinion in the introduction and conclusion. However, the development of ideas suffers from some over-generalisation and limited supporting evidence. For instance, the claim that people working 9-to-5 jobs avoid negative activities like smoking or drinking lacks robust justification or real-world depth. Furthermore, phrasing in the introduction such as 'a group of school counter the proposed statement' is slightly confusing and indicates minor task interpretation slips. Nevertheless, the main positions are identifiable and carried through to the end, satisfying the requirements for a Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay is arranged into four clear paragraphs, demonstrating an overall structure that moves from introduction to body points and a final conclusion. However, cohesion is frequently mechanical and sometimes faulty. Transitional phrases like 'To begin with', 'In sharp contrast', and 'In a nutsell' are used, but cohesive ties within sentences are awkward. For example, referencing is sometimes unclear, as seen in 'The ones having daily 9 to 5 job anf only prioritizing the work they do have a fixed daily routine making them less involved...'. Paragraphing is present, but internal progression is disrupted by sentence-level clumsiness and grammatical interruptions, placing this response firmly in the Band 5.5 to 6.0 range.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The student attempts a range of vocabulary appropriate to the topic, including terms like 'monotonous job routine', 'cortisol', and 'rejuvination'. However, there are numerous spelling and word-choice inaccuracies throughout the text, such as 'disciplied' instead of disciplined, 'peacefull' instead of peaceful, 'acitivities' instead of activities, 'ingorned' instead of ignored, 'persue' instead of pursue, and 'nutsell' instead of nutshell. These errors show a lack of control over less common lexical items. While meaning is generally retrievable, the density of spelling mistakes and lexical infelicities prevents the response from achieving a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some variety in structure. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors occurring across the text. Examples include subject-verb agreement and preposition issues ('people who focus more on their work have more disciplied and stable lifestyle'), spelling-induced morphological errors, and awkward phrasing ('humans who listen to their heart and persue hobbies of there intrest makes them a free bird'). Punctuation and article usage are also inconsistent ('accoding to my opinion i feel'). These recurring errors cause occasional difficulty for the reader, aligning the grammar with the Band 5 descriptors.

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

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