Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-02
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 5.5)
Most of the primary schools in our country heavily focus on formal learning only while some schools also focused on physical activity for students. Games and other physical activity are very cruical for their mental growth. To my perspective i strongly agreed that most of the primary schools focused on formal learning only.
Firstly, the school is a place where students learn and gain knowledge to their subject and syllybus memorizing, reading and writing all the day is not good for mental peace. Besides study sports period should be very important for their relaxation management need to desing and arrange the time table for playing various types of games. Playing different games in the classroom creats great enviorment benifcial for student growth. During that time many student participate in various game and sports would lead to increase their confidence level and they will face and communicate in better way with other peoples. Sportrs and games are very essential for brain development and helps us to relief the stress. Adding sports in our daily routine helps us to fresh our mind and increase our thinking level to make quick decision at the time of need.
Furthermore, school management needs to include a extra period for sports and games atleast twice in a week. Like, an institute who focused on sports with formal learning have more creative active and intelligent students and their level of thinking, brainstorming and quick decision are far away to other who never take part in any type of sports. Games in their daily life are very crucial for physical and mental growth.
In conclusion, games and sports are very benificial for the students with studies of various type of subject and in my opinion extra perriod will be add in the routine
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0
The response addresses all parts of the task, presenting an opinion on formal learning and discussing the importance of play in primary schools. However, the development of ideas is uneven. For instance, the discussion on how games create a great environment is raised but remains somewhat repetitive and under-developed, relying on general statements like "helps us to relief the stress" rather than deep extension. The writer maintains a clear position throughout, concluding that extra periods for sports should be added. To reach the next level, the ideas need more thorough support, specific examples, and better elaboration on both aspects of the prompt.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0
The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear stance and basic paragraph structure, dividing the introduction, body arguments, and conclusion. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical and referencing is occasionally unclear. For example, transition markers like "Firstly" and "Furthermore" are used to structure the text, but the flow between sentences within paragraphs can feel disjointed, as seen in the sudden shift from classroom environments to stress relief. Pronoun referencing is also loose in places, such as "them" and "us" shifting perspective. To improve, the writer needs to ensure smoother logical transitions and more precise referencing throughout the text.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is minimally adequate for the task, providing enough range to communicate basic ideas about formal learning and physical activities. There are several spelling and word choice errors, such as "cruical" instead of crucial, "syllybus" instead of syllabus, "benifcial" instead of beneficial, and "perriod" instead of period. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary like "brain development" and "relaxation management," but these attempts are often accompanied by inaccuracies in collocation and form. These errors do not completely impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score to this level. Expanding precision and eliminating spelling errors would elevate the score.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The response features a mix of simple and some attempted complex sentence forms, such as conditional or relative-style clauses. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation. Examples include run-on sentences with missing punctuation (e.g., "To my perspective i strongly agreed that..."), incorrect verb tenses ("while some schools also focused"), and issues with articles and pluralisation ("a extra period", "other peoples"). While these errors rarely completely impede communication, their frequency prevents the writing from achieving a higher level. Better control over sentence boundaries, subject-verb agreement, and article usage is needed to improve this criterion.
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.