Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-12

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

It is very common for people to change both their habits and their opinions as they get older.

Do you agree or disagree?

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

I strongly agree with this view as it can have significant impact on individuals and society as a whole. Priorities get changed over time. A teenage can have a completely different mindset than a fourty-five years adult. Their daily routine and experiences could be different as they go through the life. However, Some people does not change their practices and perpectives even if they went through the toughest time of their life.

As we dicussed before, an ordinary porson definitely change the customs and thoughts over the period of time. People go through the different part of the life and makes them do it. A teenage does not care about the family, do not indulge in family gatherings. Maybe that is the time when a growing up person do not understand the responsibilities of life. Adults on the other hand, have already been through those part of life. They understand there some more important things in life which coutiously needs to be taked care of. They undertand the priorities, and mindset is totally different than the other person which we discussed previously.

Furthermore, if i talk about myself, when i was growing up, i never listen to my parents. Regardless of hearing them, i used to leave the room. I had more priorities at that time like outing with friends, riding bikes etcetera. After that time passed, now from the mindset of a married man i completely understand why my parents wanted me to listen to them. I am totally changed as a individual. As there is an old saying "hard time shape your character faster than the comfort does".

To conclude, i would like to mention that the shape of life definitely teach some lessons. Hard times with responsibilities teaches the most valuable lessons, which leads to shape the better society, reverse the thought process, precendences, and the way of life.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses the prompt directly by taking a clear stance that people change their habits and opinions as they age, supporting this with relevant ideas. The writer presents a logical contrast between the mindset of a teenager and an adult, drawing upon personal experience to develop the position further. For example, the mention of shifting priorities from 'outing with friends' in youth to understanding parental wisdom in adulthood effectively illustrates the main argument. However, some ideas are slightly repetitive or underdeveloped, such as the concession regarding people who do not change, which is introduced briefly without much elaboration. The conclusion summarises the main points reasonably well. Overall, the response fulfills the task requirements adequately, earning a band score of 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is utilised to separate distinct ideas, such as the general discussion in the first two paragraphs versus the personal anecdote in the third. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. For instance, the transition 'As we dicussed before' feels awkward since no prior discussion took place in the essay itself, and referencing is occasionally unclear (e.g., 'the other person which we discussed previously'). Cohesive devices are used, but they are sometimes repetitive or inappropriately applied, which places this text firmly in the band 6 category for cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common words and phrases such as 'mindset', 'priorities', 'precendences', and 'consequently'. However, there are notable spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, such as 'fourty-five years adult' instead of 'forty-five-year-old adult', 'perpectives', 'porson', 'coutiously', and 'taked care of'. Furthermore, collocation is occasionally awkward, as seen in 'shape of life' instead of 'experiences of life'. While these lexical errors are noticeable and detract from precision, they do not severely impede overall communication, reflecting the band 5.5 to 6.0 descriptors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures such as conditional and relative clauses (e.g., 'Even if they went through the toughest time of their life'). However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in tense consistency, subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'Some people does not change', 'a growing up person do not understand'), and article usage (e.g., 'as a individual'). Punctuation is also problematic in places, such as lowercase 'i' used for the first-person pronoun. Although these errors do not completely obscure the meaning, their frequency prevents the writer from achieving a higher band score, making a 5.0 the most appropriate reflection of grammatical control.

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