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

In some parts of the world, people buy far too many clothes.

What are the reasons for this?
How can people be persuaded to reduce the number of clothes they buy?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.0)

In this modern society, Social media like facebook and instagram plays an important role in people's life. People usually get influnced by watching reels and following their role models. They always tried to look how their role model or actor or actrees looks.

One of the main reason is social media trends, Now a days, Internet became very cheap and unlimited data available to use, hence people will spent more time on social media.

On the other hand, lots of fashion business platforms are available where people would get and see wide variety of clothes. These business platforms often offers good discounts on treding clothes. People will get attract on this discounts and immediatley buy unnecessary items which they would not require that time.

Back in days, People have bought a cloth when there was a festival or special occassion like birthday or marriage functions. And they were wearing same cloths frequently. But now, they do not want to repeat cloths as they are worried about other people what they said.

In some countries, a lot of people would not have cloths to wear due to financial situation or low economic back ground. Hence, my opinion is people have to buy enough cloths what they could wear, not an excess cloths and they should donate cloths, money to this poorest or undeveloped countries which will boost their economy and fulfill their needs.

I strongly believe that people should not follow completely social media's trends blindly. We should buy cloths which are necessities.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt, discussing the reasons why people buy excessive clothes, such as social media trends and cheap internet, and offering solutions like reducing purchases and donating items. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive. For example, the point about social media is touched upon multiple times without being significantly extended. The writer presents a clear personal position in the conclusion and body paragraphs. While the arguments are relevant, they tend to over-generalise and lack depth or specific examples. Overall, the performance aligns well with Band 5.5 descriptors, as it covers the task requirements but remains somewhat underdeveloped and basic in its extension of ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The essay is organised into multiple paragraphs, attempting an introduction, body paragraphs addressing reasons and solutions, and a conclusion. However, the paragraphing is somewhat erratic and includes single-sentence paragraphs at the end, which weakens the overall structure. Logical progression is often hindered by abrupt shifts between ideas, and cohesive devices are used inconsistently or inappropriately. For instance, transitional phrases like 'On the other hand' are misused since the following point does not represent a counter-argument to the previous one, but rather another reason. Referencing is occasionally unclear, such as ambiguous pronoun usage. These features are characteristic of Band 5 coherence and cohesion, displaying some organisational structure but lacking a clear overall progression.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is relatively basic and repetitive, with words like 'clothes', 'social media', and 'people' recurring frequently. There are noticeable lexical errors, such as spelling mistakes ('influnced', 'actrees', 'reason' instead of 'reasons', 'treding', 'occassion', 'cloths') and awkward word choices ('financial situation or low economic back ground', 'poorest or undeveloped countries'). The student attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'necessities' and 'discount', but accuracy is lacking. While the range is minimally adequate to convey the basic message, the frequent errors in spelling and word formation place this response firmly at Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay displays a very limited range of grammatical structures. Most sentences are simple or poorly constructed complex forms, and there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text. Examples include tense inconsistencies ('Internet became very cheap', 'People have bought a cloth'), article errors ('a cloth', 'an excess cloths'), and subject-verb agreement issues ('Social media ... plays', 'People ... tried'). Punctuation and capitalization errors are also present, such as lowercase letters for proper nouns like 'facebook' and 'instagram'. These errors frequently cause strain and difficulty for the reader, matching the criteria for Band 5.0 where attempts at complex sentences are often faulty and errors are frequent.

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

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