Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-10-14

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 6.5)

Many people regard they profession as the most important thing in life, dedicating decades to it. Opposite to this, many prefer to spend more time and effort to their hobbies and leisure interests. I think one should funds the right balance between both to live a more fulfilling and holistic life.

Prioritising work over everything else in life can get very isolating. It can lead to one-dimensional social relationships that are limited to the professional and superficial level. This can also strip one's sense of self-worth from every other aspect of their life, deriving validation from work alone. Although achieving career goals and ambitions are important to have a successful life, relying on the same to bring you satisfaction in your personal life is unhealthy.

Similarly, only pursuing hobbies and interests as a leisure activity may not be the best strategy to have a settled career. Sure, loving what you do is integral to being content with your career path. But to spend all that energy on leisure interests is not the right path to success.

Creating a balance between work and play helps us establish a professional career as well as have creative fun with our hobbies. For instance, leading professional cricketers hardly play the sport on off days or in off seasons. They veer towards other sports and recreational activities. This helps them keep the love for their job and learn new skills in new domains to keep their learning streak alive.

Striking a balance between both work and leisure proves to be most benefitial for one's mental and social well-being. Furthermore, it allows room for creative and social growth as we learn new things and make new personal connections.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You address both attitudes and state a clear opinion: “one should find the right balance” between work and leisure. The discussion of work-centred lives is relevant and explains possible effects on relationships and self-worth. You also acknowledge that enjoying one’s work matters, and the cricketer example supports your argument for balance. However, the treatment is uneven: the case for prioritising hobbies is brief and mainly says it may hinder career success, without exploring why people might value leisure more than work. Some claims, such as the effect of work on relationships, would benefit from a specific explanation or example. Develop both perspectives more evenly and make the supporting reasoning more precise to strengthen the response.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The response has a clear overall progression: it introduces the two attitudes, considers work-centred and leisure-centred lives in separate paragraphs, then presents balance as the preferred approach. Paragraphing is appropriate, and transitions such as “Similarly,” “For instance,” and “Furthermore” help readers follow the argument. The central position remains consistent. To make the progression more fully developed, connect the brief discussion of leisure-focused people more explicitly to the final case for balance; at present, that paragraph ends without a clear link to the conclusion. Some references are also broad, such as “the same” in “relying on the same,” which makes the connection slightly less direct. More precise links between claims and examples would improve cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

You use a suitable range of vocabulary for the topic, including “one-dimensional social relationships,” “deriving validation,” “career path,” and “mental and social well-being.” These choices help express abstract ideas, and the meaning is generally clear. There are, however, some inaccurate or unnatural choices that limit precision: “funds the right balance” appears to mean “finds,” while “benefitial” is misspelled and “creative fun” is an awkward collocation in this context. “Keep their learning streak alive” is also informal for an academic essay. Aim for natural collocations and a consistently formal register, and check spelling carefully. More precise wording would make the argument sound more fluent and controlled.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

You use a mix of simple and complex structures, including the opening contrast and the conditional construction “Although achieving career goals and ambitions are important…”. Most sentences communicate the intended meaning, and the paragraphing helps make the argument easy to follow. Some grammatical errors remain. For example, “Many people regard they profession” has an incorrect possessive form, and “Although achieving career goals and ambitions are important” has a subject–verb agreement problem because the gerund phrase functions as singular. In “to spend all that energy on leisure interests is not the right path,” the structure is understandable but could be expressed more directly. Review possessives, agreement with gerund phrases, and sentence patterns after infinitives to improve accuracy.

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