Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-17
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 4.0)
The piechart illustrates the proportion of different types of library users, while the table shows user satisfaction levels across four categories.
overall, Full time undergraduate constitue the largest proportion of library users, whereas academic staff represents the smallest group. In terms of user satisfaction, Helpfulness of staff receives the highest level of satisfaction while Availability of journals cause the most dissatisfaction.
Full time undergraduates make up the highest percentage at 44% which is almost double than the figure of full time postgraduate accounts for 25%. Part time postgraduate represents 16% making third largest category. In contrast Academic staff is the lowest category among all, accounts for 7%.
Regarding library user satisfaction, staff helpfulness records the maximum satisfaction, with 95% of user reporting they are very satisfied and the remaining 5% being fairly satisfied , with 0% dissatisfied . Similarly, library opening hours also make up the second largest satisfaction with 65% of user submitting they are very happy with it and the rest 35% with fairly satisfied, with 0% unhappy. Whereas, Availability of journals represents the lowest satisfaction with 45% of user satsified while 19% are most dissatisfied.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 1.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 4.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 1.0
The student has written a response about library user statistics, which completely ignores the actual writing task prompt regarding primary schools, formal learning, and play. Furthermore, the length requirement has not been met, as the response contains only 188 words compared to the minimum of 250 words. This constitutes a severe task failure and significant under-length penalty. Because the candidate attempted to answer a completely different visual task instead of the argumentative task provided, the response is entirely off-topic, leading to a very low band score for this criterion.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
Despite the completely irrelevant content, the text displays a basic structure with an introduction and separate body paragraphs addressing different aspects of the data. Logical transitions are attempted using cohesive devices such as "whereas", "in contrast", and "similarly". However, referencing is sometimes awkward, and paragraphing is underdeveloped due to the short length of the text. Cohesion is occasionally mechanical, but there is a discernible organizational structure present in the writing.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for discussing data and percentages, using terms such as "proportion", "constitute", "satisfaction levels", and "dissatisfaction". There are some lexical inaccuracies and awkward word choices, such as "constitue" (spelling error) and "cause the most dissatisfaction" (collocation issue). However, the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the intended meaning of the data described, even though the content itself is completely off-topic.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The writer uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating clauses with percentages and comparisons. However, there are several grammatical and punctuation errors throughout the text, including missing capitalization ("overall"), missing hyphens in compound modifiers ("Full time undergraduate"), subject-verb agreement issues ("Full time undergraduates make up... accounts for"), and missing punctuation before closing clauses. Despite these frequent errors, communication is generally not impeded.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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