Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-10-01

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 6.0)

A number of people think that, their job is the most important thing in their life and they have only a few interests in fun activities. While others believe in spending plenty of their time in fun and creative activities rather than on work. I personally believe that we always try to strike a balance between work and leisure time.

On the one hand, in today's fast-paced world, there is fierce competition between people. They have to work day and night in order to aquire their goals. Moreover, mostly people are extremely rigorous about attaining a successful career in future, in order to have a luxury life. They don't care about relaxation, their only focus is their work, which is detrimental for their physical and mental health.For instance, many in the older generation in my country used to work day and night without any rest and ended up being sick both mentally and physically.

On the other hand, we do have many people who give importance to their hobbies and leisure interests instead of their profession. There is no doubt leisure time is very important in our life, but having no passion about their work will make their life difficult in the future. According to a recent survey in India, 45% of youngsters nowadays, are addicted to social media and became a couch potato, which is resulting in an increase in the unemployed population.

In my perspective, everyone should strike a balance between their extra activities and their professional life. A balanced blend of both can help people to lead a successful life.

In conclusion, being a workaholic or being a fun lover separately can bring detrimental affects on life. However, a balance between both work and hobbies is extremely important for a prosperous life.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both attitudes towards work and leisure and providing a personal opinion. However, the development of ideas is limited in places, reflecting a partial treatment of the prompt. For example, while the writer mentions that workaholism is detrimental to health, the supporting example regarding the older generation is somewhat general and under-developed. The position is clear throughout the essay, but some arguments lack the specific depth and extension required for higher bands. To improve, you should ensure that every main idea is fully elaborated with specific, highly relevant explanations and well-focused examples rather than broad generalizations.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The essay demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear, logical progression of ideas from introduction to conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately, with each body paragraph focusing on a distinct viewpoint. Cohesive devices such as 'On the one hand', 'Moreover', and 'In conclusion' are employed to guide the reader, though referencing is occasionally mechanical. For instance, the transition between discussing social media addiction and its impact on unemployment in the second body paragraph could be smoother. To reach a higher level, ensure that cohesive devices are used more flexibly and subtly, and check that referencing pronouns link clearly to their antecedents to avoid slight mechanical phrasing.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to communicate main ideas successfully. There is an attempt to use less common vocabulary, such as 'fast-paced world', 'fierce competition', and 'detrimental', which shows some ambition. However, noticeable errors in word choice, spelling, and collocation occur, such as 'aquire' instead of 'acquire', 'mostly people' instead of 'most people', and 'luxury life' instead of 'luxurious life'. These minor inaccuracies do not severely impede communication, but they restrict the score. To improve, focus on mastering spelling, word forms, and natural collocations, ensuring that less common lexical items are used with greater precision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The text displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an attempt at varied grammatical structures. However, there are noticeable errors in grammar and punctuation, particularly with subject-verb agreement and prepositional patterns, such as in the opening sentence 'think that, their job' where the comma is intrusive, and 'became a couch potato' which breaks tense consistency with 'are addicted'. Errors of this nature occur frequently enough to place the writing at this level, though they rarely impede overall communication. To move up, aim to increase the proportion of error-free complex sentences and pay closer attention to punctuation, verb tense consistency, and articles.

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

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