Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-04

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 5.0)

It is crucial for youngsters, teenagers and working people and the retired to have at least one hobby. In my opinion, it is important to have a hobby as it improves our way of thinking.

Firstly, it is very beneficial for children and young youth because it helps to enhance a productivity and knowledge. For teenagers, it is very important to have an interest in one thing such as reading, playing, cycling because it not only improves thinking as well as helps develop an interest in other things. For instance when child involve himself in mathematics it improves cognitive thinking and memory. For youngsters, it is also beneficial, as it allows to be more productive. For example, nowadays many adults developing an interest in knitting and crochetting.

Secondly, when it comes to working people, they have busy schedules but at least one hobby is important. On the weekends, many people would like to spend time in the park. In contrast they do yoga, strength training which is very crucial for their physical and mental well-being. Those who are retired, as now they like to spend most of the time in home, playing with grand children. If they develop an interest in anything which they want to do, then they can spend their time such as gardening, reading newspapers and magazines. For example mostly retired and working people like to do is gardening and walking. It is effective for health.

In conclusion, It has many advantages who have hobbies or an interests. Because it improves our thinking, memory, knowledge. It also increases creativity.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by expressing an opinion on the importance of hobbies for different age groups, acknowledging children, teenagers, working people, and the retired. Note that 11 words copied from the prompt were excluded from the official word count, but the length requirement is fully met. However, the response sits at this level because the ideas are limited and under-developed. While different groups are mentioned, the explanation for each group remains quite superficial. For instance, the discussion on children mentions that a hobby 'enhances a productivity and knowledge', but this idea is not extended with specific, well-reasoned arguments. The position is visible throughout the text, but the lack of fully developed examples and extended reasoning keeps the task response at this level.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

There is some basic organisation in the essay, with distinct paragraphs attempting to address different demographic groups, such as children, teenagers, and working or retired people. However, there is no clear overall progression across the text as a whole. The transitions between sentences and paragraphs can feel abrupt and mechanical. For example, using 'Firstly,' and 'Secondly,' establishes a basic structure, but the internal links within paragraphs are weak. Repetitive phrasing is also present, and referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the final paragraph where pronouns and sentence fragments like 'It has many advantages who have hobbies' disrupt the logical flow and make the progression difficult to follow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is limited but minimally adequate to convey the basic message about hobbies. There are noticeable lexical errors and awkward collocations that cause some difficulty for the reader. Examples include 'young youth', 'enhance a productivity', 'child involve himself', and 'crochetting' (spelling). The writer attempts less common phrases, but issues with word forms, such as 'adults developing an interest' missing auxiliary verbs or correct participial forms, demonstrate a restricted lexical range. While meaning is generally retrievable, the frequent vocabulary and word-choice inaccuracies prevent the writing from achieving a higher rating.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The essay displays a very limited range of grammatical structures, relying heavily on simple sentences and basic subject-verb patterns. Attempts at complex sentences are frequently faulty, leading to noticeable structural errors. Examples of grammatical issues include article misuse ('a productivity'), missing subjects or verbs ('allows to be more productive', 'as now they like to spend most of the time in home'), and awkward prepositional or clausal phrasing ('mostly retired and working people like to do is gardening'). Frequent errors in basic sentence construction and parts of speech are present throughout the text, though they rarely obscure the overall meaning entirely.

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