Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-13

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 5.5)

Nowadays many people whether they are adults and younger ones should indulge themselves in atleast one hobby. From this perspective, I believe it is completely a good way to keep themselves busy.

On the one hand, many people do not perform and take part in interesting activities. Because of technology usage habits people may not refrain this thing, and do not involve theirselves in any hobby. For example, excessive technology habits among various people, they often do not realize even to spend sometime with their family and children. As a result, their children may not be able to get attached to their parents.

On the other hand, if children or elders won't perform any activity. They may feel laziness which really affects their overall development especially among young children. For example, if a children often wake up early in the morning for school days, so just before the breakfast it's good to go for a walk in the park to feel physical fit. Also parents can participate in this regular activity. Hence, this step will make huge progress in their mental health.

In my opinion, I believe it's a really good initiative to have a proper routine of a particular hobby, as this balanced approach is beneficial for elders as well as children.

In conclusion, people often neglect the main purpose of life because of the technology which may have negative consequences on their well-being. But developing proper hobby while keeping apart from electronic devices, may benefit them.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing the importance of having a hobby for people of all ages and takes a clear position. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive, particularly regarding the negative impacts of technology. Furthermore, the length requirement of 250 words is not met as the essay contains 248 words, which necessitates a minor penalty in this criterion. While the introduction of examples such as walking in the park is relevant, the overall argumentation remains fairly simple and could be expanded to more fully explore the nuances across different age groups mentioned in the prompt, such as working people and retirees, who receive minimal specific attention in the text.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is generally coherent with a clear overarching structure, including an introduction, body paragraphs with distinct points, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate ideas. However, logical progression is sometimes hindered by abrupt transitions and awkward linking devices. For instance, starting a sentence with 'Because of technology usage habits people may not refrain this thing' disrupts the flow. Cohesive devices are occasionally mechanical or inaccurate, and referencing is sometimes unclear, as seen in the sentence 'if a children often wake up early', where pronouns and modifiers do not connect smoothly. Overall arrangement is clear, but cohesion requires more precision.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The lexical resource is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to communicate basic opinions about hobbies and technology. There are attempts to use less common vocabulary, such as 'indulge themselves', 'excessive technology habits', and 'overall development'. However, there are noticeable word choice and collocation errors, such as 'refrain this thing', 'feel laziness' instead of 'feel lazy', and 'feel physical fit' instead of 'feel physically fit'. Spelling is generally acceptable, but vocabulary limitations and awkward phrasing prevent the score from reaching a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing conditional structures like 'if children or elders won't perform any activity, they may feel laziness'. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several noticeable errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ('if a children often wake up'), awkward verb forms ('won't perform' instead of 'do not perform'), and missing prepositions or articles. While these errors rarely completely impede communication, they occur frequently enough to restrict the score to a band 5.5. Punctuation is generally functional, but control over complex sentence structures needs improvement.

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

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