Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-22

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 5.0)

Some people believe that, primary schools emphasis too much on formal learning instead of games and playing activities. Primary schools give more attention to only student's learning. Teachers do not develop their playing activities.

One the one hand, all the primary schools focus on formal learning of the students. Which is not good for students. Students have to sit in a classroom all the day at school.They get bored by that. They don't feel their mind active and relax. Stress can be a main reason of that. Children are not able to give their attention to studies properly. If schools just emphasis on learning of the students, it will decrease the capacity of students to learn the complexity of the subjects like maths. They have to learn many subjects like maths ,english and science from a very young age.

On the second hand, Playing games and different activities have a very crucial role in stident's life. Play games make the students active and healthy. Their mind can do many tasks of difficult subjects. Because when they are playing they feel relax. Students can learn more through games and activities. They can learn counting with games. When they play together, they know the importance of team work and also they learn to help each other. So learning with play is more fun and easy to remember.

In conclusion, primary schools should not focus only formal learning. They should give equal time to play.A good balance of learning and play will make children happy, healthy and more interested in schools.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response addresses both parts of the prompt, discussing the extent of formal learning in primary schools and the importance of play alongside learning. A clear position is established that formal learning should not be the sole focus and that play is vital. However, the development of ideas remains somewhat superficial and repetitive, characteristic of Band 5. For instance, the discussion on stress and boredom is stated rather than fully extended with deeper reasoning or detailed examples. Furthermore, terms such as 'stident' and minor punctuation/spacing issues occur, but the core requirements of the task are adequately met in terms of content coverage.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The essay displays basic overall organization with clear paragraph breaks separating the introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. However, cohesion is frequently faulty and mechanical. The student uses abrupt transitional phrases like 'One the one hand' and 'On the second hand' (which contains a lexical error instead of 'On the other hand'). Logical progression within paragraphs is hindered by short, disjointed sentences such as 'Primary schools give more attention to only student's learning. Teachers do not develop their playing activities.' Referencing is occasionally unclear, and overall cohesive devices are overused or misused, keeping the response at a Band 5 level.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is relatively limited and repetitive, with words like 'learning', 'students', 'games', and 'play' appearing frequently throughout the text. There are also noticeable word-choice and spelling errors, such as 'emphasis' instead of 'emphasise', 'stident' instead of 'student', and the awkward collocation 'Play games make the students active'. While the range is minimally adequate to convey the basic message and communicate the writer's opinions on education, the frequent lexical errors and lack of sophisticated phrasing prevent the response from achieving a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but control is inconsistent. There are frequent grammatical errors, such as fragment sentences ('Which is not good for students.'), subject-verb agreement issues ('Primary schools emphasis', 'Play games make'), and prepositions ('give their attention to studies', 'interested in schools'). Complex structures are often faulty, and punctuation errors are common. Although the meaning remains largely intelligible despite these errors, the density of grammatical inaccuracies places this performance firmly in the Band 5 category.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.