Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-10-12

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)

It is really important for children, young adults, working people and the retired to have at least one hobby. All of us need a relaxation after the long days of school, work and our daily routines. This reduvces boredom and brings joy into our lives. Everybody should make a hobby for themselves. It could be anything like going to gym, reading, painting, content creation or whatever gives one the happiness.

Having a hobby is really essential for kids and young adults because having a same consistent day with same routines reduces the focus and increases boredom gradually. People should always have a hobby that they do after their hectic routines. This sparks the excitement and one is always looking forward to do something new.

For example, parents should take their children for different activities after school. This could help them choose a hobby that they enjoy and gives them joy and bliss. This could help children focus more on their studies and reduce the boredom.

The same goes for working people as well. They should always keep a hobby going with their life. It could be anything that reduces stress and make you feel happy.

For retired adults, there are alot of recreational centres that offer variety of activities to keep them busy and physically fit. Life could be really boring if they do not have anything to look forward to. For example, gardening is very famous with older people as living in nature gives peace to ones mind and body.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.5
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

Your position is clear: you agree that people of all ages benefit from having a hobby, and you give relevant reasons such as reducing boredom, supporting children’s focus, relieving work-related stress, and keeping retired people active. The examples of after-school activities and gardening help illustrate your points. However, the discussion is uneven: the benefits for children are explained more fully, while the points about working people and retirees are brief and largely general. The response also contains 235 words, so it is 15 words below the required minimum; the 16 words copied from the task prompt are not counted. Develop the later age-group points with specific examples or explanations to address the task more fully.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a coherent overall arrangement: it introduces your view, discusses children and young adults, then moves to working people and retired adults. Paragraph breaks help distinguish these groups, and phrases such as “For example” make the supporting illustration easy to identify. However, progression within some paragraphs is limited, and several ideas are linked in a repetitive way, particularly through repeated use of “This could help” and “They should always.” The reference in “This sparks the excitement” is also not fully precise, as the reader must infer what “This” refers to. Use a wider range of linking expressions and make references explicit, while ensuring each paragraph develops its main point before moving on.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including relevant terms such as “hectic routines,” “recreational centres,” and “physically fit.” The range is appropriate to the topic, but some choices are imprecise or informal, and several expressions are repeated, including “hobby,” “boring,” and “joy.” There are also noticeable spelling and word-form errors, such as “reduvces” and “alot,” which reduce accuracy. Some collocations need refinement: “make a hobby” is not natural in this context, and “a same consistent day” is unclear. Aim for more precise phrasing and check spelling carefully; varied terms for relaxation, leisure activities, and emotional benefits would make the response more flexible.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You use both simple sentences and some longer structures, including the conditional “Life could be really boring if they do not have anything to look forward to” and the clause beginning “because.” Meaning is generally understandable, but errors in sentence structure and agreement remain noticeable. For example, “having a same consistent day with same routines reduces” needs more accurate article use, while “activities … that they enjoy and gives them” has a subject–verb agreement problem. In “It could be anything that reduces stress and make you feel happy,” the verbs do not agree in form. There is also a comma splice in “This sparks the excitement and one is always looking forward to do something new.” Review articles, agreement, parallel verb forms, and sentence boundaries, while continuing to practise varied complex sentences.

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

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