Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-02

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)

I strongly agree that everyone, from a child to a retired person, should have at least one hobby. A hobby is not just a way to pass time, it is very important for both mental and physical health.

Firstly, hobbies are very good for children and young adults. For children hobbies like drawing, reading a book, playing outdoor games, cycling is the best hobbies, these hobbies can children away from mobile phones and social media. Young individual a college students can be stress or tried because of their studies. They prefer to go their gym, playing cricket or bedminton. These hobbies help their mental and physical health. For instance, when they feel stressed during their studies they play outdoor games with their friends and they feel fresh and happy.

Secondly, hobbies are important for working people and retired people. Working people doing a lots of work in their daily life. So they have not enough time for hobbies. However, they work 8 to 10 hours daily and come home tired. If they have a hobby like gardening, cooking, watching movies they can enjoy their free time and maintain a balance between work and life.

On the other hand, retired people a hobby is even more important. After retirement, they have a lot of free time and they often feel lonely or useless. A hooby like reading a newspaper, going walk for a nearby park talk with people these things they feel happy.

I strongly agree that children, young adults and old people should have at least one hobby because it makes life healthy and happy.

overall, having a hobby is essential for all age groups. It makes our life more interesting, happy, fresh and meaningful.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response successfully addresses all parts of the prompt by stating a clear position of strong agreement and examining hobbies across various age groups, from children to retired people. The essay demonstrates elements of a higher band by extending ideas with relevant examples, such as how young individuals or college students might turn to the gym, cricket, or badminton to manage stress from their studies. However, some ideas remain slightly under-developed or repetitive, particularly in the sections discussing working and retired individuals where the explanations hover around feeling tired or lonely without fully exploring broader implications. To reach the next level, the writer should ensure that every body paragraph develops its supporting examples with equal depth and fully articulates the broader benefits of hobbies across all mentioned stages of life.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction and conclusion, utilizing standard chronological groupings by age to structure the body paragraphs. Cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', and 'On the other hand' are employed to guide the reader through the arguments. However, the progression between sentences can occasionally feel mechanical, and referencing is sometimes imprecise, such as in the sentence 'retired people a hobby is even more important', where the transition lacks a smooth structural link. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to separate different demographic groups, but internal paragraph cohesion requires tighter logical links. To achieve a higher band, the writer should integrate more varied and subtle cohesive devices rather than relying heavily on basic listing adverbs, ensuring seamless transitions between ideas.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, successfully conveying the writer's general message about health and happiness. The student attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'maintain a balance' and 'essential for all age groups', but also exhibits noticeable limitations and word-choice errors, such as 'young individual a college students', 'bedminton' instead of badminton, and 'hooby' instead of hobby. Additionally, phrases like 'working people doing a lots of work' and 'going walk for a nearby park' demonstrate restricted collocation and lexical control. These errors do not entirely impede communication, placing the response firmly at this level. To improve, the writer needs to expand their range of precise vocabulary, focus heavily on accurate word forms, and eliminate basic spelling mistakes through careful proofreading.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response displays a limited range of sentence structures, relying primarily on simple sentences alongside a few basic attempts at complex forms that frequently contain errors. There are noticeable grammatical inaccuracies throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues like 'cycling is the best hobbies', missing articles, and awkward prepositional patterns such as 'talk with people these things they feel happy'. Punctuation and verb tense consistency also show persistent weaknesses, for instance, 'Working people doing a lots of work'. These frequent errors require some effort from the reader to decode the intended meaning. To move up to a higher band, the writer must incorporate a wider variety of complex structures with greater control, paying closer attention to auxiliary verbs, plurals, and correct clause formation.

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

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