Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-12

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)

According to some people, primary schools focus too much on formal learnig rather than any physical activity or a play. I compeletly agree with their perspective, shools must focus on other activites instead of just focusing on formal learning. In the following i will give some reasons to support my answer.

Firstly, play is very important for children for his health. As someone said that ''A sound body has a sound mind". Its mean that if a child is not physically fit or healthy, he can't focus on studies properly. That's why, it is very important for children to play or do any physical activity. Student must ensures that he had done a physical activity in his day. School shoud also focus on student activities and try to make a spread period for sport which make students healthy and active throughout the day.

Secondly, a student can learn a lot of things by playing physical games with his class fellows or friends. First quality driven by playings is teamwork. By playing games, children learn how to work in team. Another quality is problem solving skills. Student came to know how to solve a problem quickly or perfectively. It is also a great quality that can be learned through sports. For instance, if a student play regularly, he have to take decisions on right time. Furthermore he have to play with his friends which can learn team work.

In conclusion, play for children is as important as formal learning in school. Instead of ignoring sports in school, teachers should promote physical activites in students and explain importance of health. Formal learning without any practical or physical activity can lead to frustration.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

Your position is clear from the introduction: you completely agree that schools should give more attention to play, and the conclusion reinforces that view. You address both the value of physical activity and what children can learn through games, with relevant points about health, teamwork and decision-making. These ideas meet the task well, and the example of making decisions during sport helps support your second point. However, the discussion of classroom play is less fully developed: most of your examples concern sport and physical activity, rather than explaining how play can be integrated with formal learning. The claim that formal learning without activity can cause frustration is also asserted rather than explained. Develop these points with a specific classroom example to make the response more complete.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, two body paragraphs organised around separate reasons, and a conclusion. Sequencing phrases such as “Firstly,” “Secondly,” and “In conclusion” make the progression easy to follow. Within the second body paragraph, however, the ideas about teamwork, problem-solving and decision-making overlap, and the final sentence repeats the point about playing with friends and teamwork. Some connections are also mechanical, with repeated use of “Furthermore” and “Another quality.” Referencing is occasionally unclear, as in “which can learn team work,” where the reader has to infer who is learning. Group related benefits more tightly, avoid repeating a point, and use clearer links between each claim and its example.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including relevant terms such as “physical activity,” “teamwork,” “problem solving skills” and “frustration.” However, the range is limited and several noticeable spelling, word-form and collocation errors make the writing less natural. Examples include “learnig,” “compeletly,” “spread period for sport,” and “quality driven by playings.” Some expressions are also imprecise, such as “perfectively” and “explain importance of health.” These choices do not prevent the reader from understanding your overall argument, but they sometimes require interpretation. Build a more accurate set of phrases for discussing classroom learning and play, and check spelling and collocations carefully before submitting.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more extended sentence forms, including a conditional idea in “if a child is not physically fit or healthy, he can't focus on studies properly.” The main message remains understandable, but errors occur across verb forms, agreement, articles and sentence construction. For example, “Student must ensures” has an incorrect verb form, while “if a student play regularly, he have to take decisions” contains agreement errors. In “which can learn team work,” the clause is not grammatically complete in meaning. The range is also fairly limited, with many sentences following similar patterns. Practise accurate subject–verb agreement and complete relative clauses, then vary sentence structures while keeping them controlled.

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