Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-11-03

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)

Some people often think that children should focus primarly on education or learning during their primary school time. Where other argue that playing is the most important part along with learning for childrens. I believe, that playing is as much important as learning for children in the primary school classroom.

Firstly, playing sports is healthy activity which must be the compulsory part along with learning. Children need to be remain active and healthier in their school time, so that they can focus more or do much better on things like study in life. For instance, the student who doesn't appear for sports activities show less interest in all aspects of life, we can see the student less active, less collaborative and have less soical interaction than student who play daily, stay healthy, find themselves active. It is very important for a child to play along with learning to maintain both.

Another benefit for playing in school is , it teaches you to never give up. Sports teaches student to stay on field until it's actually over. It teaches you to stand up again and again until yo usee yourself winning. That's why we see the student who play sports never give up easily on anything, they become kinda stubborn about acheiving something that they want in life. Sports teaches you to acheive anything you want in life with full of hardwork and right efforts.

In conclusion, i think school should make it compulsory to allow children to play along with learning, so that they can maintain their health, stay active, motivated and learn to never give up on anything in life

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

Your position is clear: you believe play is as important as learning, and you give relevant reasons, including physical health, social interaction and perseverance. The response also addresses both formal learning and classroom play, but the discussion focuses almost entirely on the benefits of sports rather than explaining whether primary schools currently place too much emphasis on formal learning. The claim that pupils who play sports “never give up easily” is broad and would be more convincing with a specific example or explanation. To develop the response further, directly compare classroom learning with play and show how teachers can balance the two, perhaps through a practical classroom activity.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, two body paragraphs and a conclusion. “Firstly” and “Another benefit” signal the main points, and the ideas within each paragraph generally relate to its topic. However, progression is limited because both body paragraphs mainly repeat the case for sports, while the question’s concern about formal learning is not developed. Some connections are awkward or unclear, such as “so that they can focus more or do much better on things like study in life.” The conclusion restates the position but adds little synthesis. Organise the body around distinct reasons—such as physical and social development, then learning through play—and use clearer links to show how each supports your answer.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate your main ideas, including “sports activities,” “social interaction,” “motivated” and “hardwork.” However, the range is limited and several expressions are imprecise or unnatural, which sometimes makes the reader work to understand the point. For example, “stay on field until it's actually over” and “stubborn about achieving something” do not express the intended qualities as clearly as more precise terms would. Spelling and word-form errors such as “primarly,” “childrens,” “soical” and “acheiving” are also noticeable. Build a wider set of accurate phrases for discussing education and child development, and check spelling and collocations during revision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more extended sentences, including a reason clause beginning “so that” and a relative clause in “the student who doesn't appear for sports activities.” However, the range is limited, and errors occur frequently in sentence construction, agreement, articles and punctuation. Examples include “Where other argue,” “Children need to be remain active,” and “Sports teaches student”; these make parts of the response less smooth to read. There are also sentence-boundary and capitalization problems, such as the comma after “I believe” and lowercase “i” in the conclusion. Practise building accurate complex sentences, especially with subject–verb agreement and verb patterns, then proofread each sentence for punctuation and capitalization.

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.