Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-17
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)
These days, individuals easily change their habits and their opinion as they grew older. I strongley agree with this view. This essay will discuss my prespective along with my view.
To commance with, there are many reasons people can change their routine,one of them is that people learn from their past experience. This is because when someone gets old they gets more mature and their understanding developes for situations. Therefore, it is simple for them to change some habits.For example, As a child individual can eat junk food, but as they get old and understand the drawbacks of junk food, they swiftly change their habit to eat health food insted of packed food. Another reason is that adaptation.To explain it, due to advancement of technology. people have to adapt new habits. They have to learn new technology to survive in daily life.Thus,To survive they learn new things in their life, such as using mobile phones for any money transactions.
There is several people think it is hard to change habits when person gets older.This is because their mind become rigid and they are practicing that habit from a long time, and they are not able to accept change. Consequently, it becomes challanging for them to change their habits. Furthermore, it is hard to make someone change their mind as they lived their full life according their belifes. Hence it is impossible for someone to change their opinion once they get old.
To conclude, older people can not change their habits and opinion as they may not easily accept things; however, their experience and their understanting can make them to change their habits if they prefer.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0
The response addresses the prompt by discussing whether people change their habits and opinions as they get older. The writer takes a clear position by stating 'I strongley agree with this view,' and attempts to support this with reasons such as past experience and technological adaptation. However, the development of ideas shows some contradiction. In the third paragraph, the writer introduces counter-arguments regarding the rigidity of older minds ('it is impossible for someone to change their opinion once they get old'), which somewhat undermines the main thesis without fully resolving or rebutting them. Furthermore, the conclusion contradicts the initial stance by claiming 'older people can not change their habits and opinion.' Despite these structural inconsistencies, all parts of the prompt are addressed, and the ideas are relevant, which places the response securely at a band 6.0.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, including an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The writer attempts to use cohesive devices such as 'To commance with,' 'This is because,' 'Therefore,' and 'To conclude.' However, some referencing and transitions are faulty or mechanical, and spelling errors in cohesive markers ('commance' instead of commence, 'challanging') detract slightly from the flow. Additionally, the progression within the conclusion is confused because it contradicts the earlier thesis. Referencing is occasionally unclear, such as 'There is several people think,' which impacts the overall management of cohesion, resulting in a band 6.0 performance.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, with some attempts to use less common items such as 'adaptation,' 'advancement,' and 'drawbacks.' However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, including 'strongley' instead of strongly, 'prespective,' 'commance,' 'understanting,' and 'challanging.' The writer also uses repetitive phrasing, such as repeating 'change their habits and their opinion' and 'get old/older' multiple times. While these errors do not severely impede communication, they reflect limitations in lexical control that prevent the score from reaching a higher band. Overall, the lexical resource demonstrates a band 5.5 capability.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some variety in structure. Examples of complex structures include 'This is because when someone gets old they gets more mature and their understanding developes for situations.' However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors such as subject-verb agreement issues ('they gets,' 'understanding developes,' 'There is several people'), incorrect pluralization ('as a child individual'), and article omissions ('due to advancement of technology'). Punctuation and spacing errors are also present, such as missing spaces after periods and commas. Although communication is rarely impeded entirely, the high frequency of basic grammatical errors places this criterion at a band 5.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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