Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-17
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
Nowadays it's possible for people to buy many products or pay for treatments that help them to look younger.
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Student answer (Band 5.0)
Nowadays, many young people pay extensive amount money on skin care products and treatments which prevents them to look older. I strongly believe that, this trend can have adverse effects on individual's lifestyle.
There are many harmful side effects of beauty products and treatments. Firstly, These products may contain harmful chemicals which can damage your skin permanantly. Secondly, several skin treatments may have deleterious effect on one's health. For instance, often skin transplant operations result in dieases like cancer. Lastly, People apply expensive skin care products because they want to post their pitures on social media. However they are hiding their natural skin glow.
On the other hand, There are many ways look naturally young. The predominant factor that contributes into your skin glow is active lifestyle therefore, young people should invest their time and money in the gym. Another significant variable is the food you eat. For example, everyone is relying on junk and processed food which is also make them look older so if they eat healthy food then they may have natural skin glow.
To conclude, sometimes it is ok to use beauty products but it should not be part of individual's daily routine.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The response attempts to address whether anti-aging products and treatments are a good or bad thing, taking a clear position in the introduction that this trend has adverse effects. However, the task is significantly compromised by the word count: the student's response contains 197 words, which fails to meet the minimum requirement of 250 words. This under-length penalty restricts the level of idea development. While arguments regarding harmful chemicals and natural alternatives are introduced, they remain somewhat superficial and lack full extension. For instance, the claim that skin transplant operations result in cancer is medically imprecise and weakens the logical support. Due to the failure to meet the minimum word length and the resulting under-development of ideas, this criterion is placed at Band 5.0.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay displays a basic structural organization with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a brief conclusion. Paragraphing is generally utilized to separate distinct points, such as the dangers of products in paragraph two and natural alternatives in paragraph three. However, the logical progression is at times disjointed, particularly in the second paragraph where the point about social media pictures feels tacked on rather than smoothly integrated with the health risks. Cohesive devices are used, but they are often basic or mechanical, such as 'Firstly,' 'Secondly,' and 'Lastly.' Additionally, referencing is occasionally imprecise. Overall, the organizational framework meets the criteria for Band 5.5, showing some structure and basic progression, though cohesion is occasionally faulty.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student demonstrates a limited but minimally adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'deleterious effect,' 'predominant factor,' and 'significant variable.' However, there are noticeable word choice and collocation errors throughout the text. For example, the student writes 'pay extensive amount money' instead of 'spend an extensive amount of money,' 'prevents them to look older' instead of 'prevents them from looking older,' and 'result in dieases like cancer' with a spelling error. Furthermore, phrases like 'everyone is relying on junk and processed food' show restricted precision. Because these lexical inaccuracies cause some slight strain for the reader while still allowing the core meaning to be conveyed, the vocabulary falls into the Band 5.0 category.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as 'The predominant factor that contributes into your skin glow is active lifestyle therefore, young people should invest...' However, control over these structures is inconsistent, leading to frequent errors in punctuation and grammar. There are several comma splices, missing articles ('is active lifestyle' instead of 'is an active lifestyle'), and preposition errors ('contributes into' instead of 'contributes to'). Other errors include subject-verb agreement issues, such as 'which is also make them look older.' Because the attempts at complex sentences are frequently flawed and grammatical errors occur with high frequency throughout the short text, the grammatical performance corresponds to a Band 5.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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