Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-15

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 widely believed that everyone should have one recreational activity at all age groups, such as youth, working professionals and old retired people. I firmly stand on this topic because hobbies promote a physically active lifestyle and offer stress relief, especially for employed people and seniors. In the following paragraphs, I will shed some light on this topic.

The primary reason why I support this view is that indulging in sports activities not only helps people stay physically fit but also plays a vital role in building social skills. This is because when adolescents or young adults take part in activities such as sports, music or art, this helps them to build discipline and sparks creativity. As a result, offer a productive outlet away from academic pressure or working screens. For example, learning a muscial instrument helps young individuals to improve concentration and build patiences, which impact their educational grades overall.

Another important reason is that for working professional and old age people, it is essential for mental well-being and life satisfaction. This is because hobbies allow employees to release work related stress, while giving an opportunity to the retired individuals to reconnect themseleves through different hobbies and live a sense of life after leaving the work. For instance, many old people take a part in gardening or a morning walk group nearby the park, which helps them to disconnect from a daily duty tasks, preventing burnout and take care of mental well-being.

In conclusion, I strongly believe that mentaing a hobby is an essential part at every stage of life. Whether fostering growth in youth or providing relaxation and purpose in adulthood, recreational pursuits significantly enhance overall quality of life.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response7.0
Coherence and Cohesion7.0
Lexical Resource6.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy6.0
Overall6.5

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The student addresses all parts of the prompt by stating a clear position on whether individuals across all age groups should have at least one hobby. The response is well-supported with relevant examples, such as adolescents engaging in sports or music to build discipline, and retired individuals participating in gardening to reduce stress. Ideas are adequately extended throughout the body paragraphs, fulfilling the requirements for Band 7. Although the generalisation that everyone needs a hobby is straightforward, the arguments presented are coherent, directly answering the prompt, and displaying a well-developed stance from introduction to conclusion.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The essay demonstrates a clear overall progression with a logical layout, featuring an introduction, two distinct body paragraphs focusing on different age groups, and a concise conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately. Cohesive devices are employed to connect ideas, such as 'The primary reason why', 'Another important reason is that', and 'In conclusion'. However, there are minor issues with referencing and cohesion within sentences, such as the fragment 'As a result, offer a productive outlet' which lacks a clear subject, and a few slightly mechanical transitions. Despite these small flaws, the organisation remains clear and easy to follow, aligning closely with the Band 7 descriptors.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student demonstrates a sufficient range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating less common phrases such as 'recreational activity', 'stress relief', 'social skills', and 'burnout'. There are several spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'muscial' instead of musical, 'patiences' instead of patience, 'working professional' instead of working professionals, and 'mentaing' instead of maintaining. Furthermore, phrases like 'reconnect themseleves' and 'take a part' contain minor collocation errors. Nevertheless, the lexical range is adequate to convey meaning with some precision, and the errors do not impede communication, making Band 6.0 an accurate assessment.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including relative clauses and conditional ideas. While there are frequent error-free sentences, several grammatical and punctuation errors persist. Examples include 'at all age groups' instead of for all age groups, 'old age people' instead of elderly people, 'work related' without a hyphen, and the sentence fragment 'As a result, offer a productive outlet'. Despite these noticeable errors, the meaning is rarely obscured, and control of grammar is sufficient to allow for smooth reading in most parts of the essay. This fits the profile for Band 6.0.

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.