Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-05

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

It is important for children, young adults, working people and the retired to have at least one hobby.

What's your opinion about this?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 6.5)

It is often argued that people of all age groups should have at least one leisure activity. In my opinion, I believe that it is essential for everyone to have some free time to unwind from a busy schedule or hectic routine and most importantly to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

One major reason to have a hobby is that it is a great way to reduce daily stress and get a chance to maintain a healthy work life balance. This is because people become frustrated with their regular routines in which they do not find much time for themselves. Consequently, they may gradually become overwhelmed by anxiety due to excessive workloads. Therefore, engaging in activities that people enjoy in their free time can be beneficial for their mental health and overall sense of well-being.

Furthermore, leisure activities are helpful to enhance problem solving skills and child cognitive development. For example, children who play games like solving puzzles and task oriented games enhance their mental growth effectively. Therefore, it would be beneficial for their future life.

Moreover, old people who are not working keep themselves busy by engaging in activities like gardening and playing different games such as chase. For example, in Canada old people mostly spend their time in their backyard by doing gardening. Therefore, they stay active and spend quality time with themselves.

To conclude, hobby plays a vital role in everyone life because in this way people become active, spend quality time with themselves, reduces stress and also young children improve their meatal development.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, covering the importance of hobbies for different age groups. The position is clear throughout. While the ideas are relevant, the development is somewhat uneven. For instance, the paragraph regarding children mentions cognitive development but could be further extended with more specific examples. The section on the elderly is better supported with the example of gardening in Canada. Overall, the response is well-structured and directly answers the question, though a more nuanced exploration of why hobbies are 'essential' for each specific group would elevate the score.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The essay is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Each paragraph has a central topic, such as stress reduction, cognitive development, and active aging. Cohesive devices like 'Furthermore', 'Moreover', and 'Consequently' are used to link ideas effectively. However, some transitions feel slightly mechanical, and the referencing in the final paragraph is a bit repetitive. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct points, which helps the reader follow the argument easily. The progression of ideas is generally smooth, though the conclusion could be more sophisticated in its summary of the main points.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express ideas clearly. There is some use of topic-specific vocabulary such as 'hectic routine', 'work-life balance', and 'cognitive development'. However, the range is somewhat limited, and there are occasional errors in word choice, such as 'chase' (likely referring to chess) and 'meatal' (a spelling error for 'mental'). To reach a higher band, the student should aim to incorporate more precise collocations and a wider variety of less common lexical items to demonstrate greater flexibility and sophistication in their writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There is a good attempt at using complex sentences, such as 'This is because people become frustrated with their regular routines in which they do not find much time for themselves.' However, there are several grammatical slips, including subject-verb agreement issues like 'hobby plays' (should be 'hobbies play') and 'everyone life' (should be 'everyone's life'). Punctuation is generally functional, but the frequency of these minor errors prevents the essay from reaching a higher band. The majority of sentences are clear, and the errors do not impede communication.

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

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