Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-11-13

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people argue that primary schools focus too much on formal learning.

To what extent do you agree with this opinion?

How important do you think it is for children to play as well as learn in the primary school classroom?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 6.5)

A significant proportion of the population argues that primary schools give more concentrations on academic learning. However, others believe that there should be opportunity for children to play alongside learning in primary school classroom and I strongly agree with this viewpoint. This essay will demonstrate the reasons behind my belief.

The major benefits of playing in school classroom can increase a child's social skill and creativity, as well as can help him maintain physical fitness. Children are usually playful souls. For this reason, having the opportunity to play in school classroom can eliminate their fear about school and encourage them to go to school. Consequently, this gives them opportunity to interact with other children more actively, which is essential to build social skill. In addition, playing different board games, such as chess, monopoly, scrabble can increase their creativity. Moreover, games which require physical involvements, work as a form of exercise. This significantly help them to maintain good health.

In contrast, playing games in school classroom have drawback too. When children become habitual of playing excessive games in classroom, they might become less concern about their academic learning. For this reason, they might end up resulting bad in their academic career. Nevertheless, this issue could be solved giving proper guideline and implementing rules by teachers.

To summarise the whole discussion, it is evident that although playing in classrooms in a primary school have a certain drawback, its benefits regarding socialisation and creativity, as well as keeping up good mental and physical health are greater, which strongly supports my belief.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

Your position is clear: you strongly support combining play with learning, and you address both the value of play and a possible drawback. The points about social skills, creativity and physical health are relevant, while acknowledging that excessive play could distract from academic work shows some balance. However, the task asks how important play is alongside learning, and this importance is asserted more than fully explained. For example, the discussion of board games and creativity would be stronger with a specific example of how play supports learning or development. The concern about academic performance is also brief. The response covers the task and gives reasons, but some ideas need fuller explanation and support to make the argument more convincing.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction states your view, the body paragraphs present benefits and a drawback, and the conclusion restates your position. Ideas generally progress logically, and linking expressions such as “For this reason,” “In addition,” and “Nevertheless” help show relationships between points. Paragraphing is appropriate and makes the argument easy to follow. At times, however, the links feel formulaic, and some references are not fully clear—for instance, “this issue” refers to the risk of weaker academic performance but could be stated more explicitly. The benefits paragraph also moves quickly from social interaction to board games and exercise. Grouping related points and using more varied, precise transitions would make the progression smoother.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for the topic, including “social skill,” “creativity,” “physical fitness,” “academic learning,” and “socialisation.” There are also attempts at more specific expressions, such as “physical involvements” and “habitual of playing,” but these are not natural collocations and reduce precision. Other choices, including “playful souls” and “good mental and physical health,” communicate the general meaning but are either informal or broad for an academic essay. Some word forms and combinations also need attention, such as “give more concentrations on” and “resulting bad.” These issues do not prevent understanding, but more accurate collocations and a wider range of precise academic phrasing would strengthen the response.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including subordinate clauses beginning “When” and “although,” and most ideas remain understandable. Some grammatical errors occur, particularly with subject–verb agreement, articles, and sentence construction. For example, “playing games in school classroom have drawback” needs agreement and an article, while “This significantly help them” should have a verb form matching its subject. The construction “this issue could be solved giving proper guideline” is also incomplete without a suitable linking form, and “might end up resulting bad” is not grammatically well formed. These errors rarely obstruct the message, but proofreading agreement, articles, and verb patterns would improve accuracy while allowing you to retain your complex sentences.

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