Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-21
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)
It is widely believed by many people that with the passage of age, they change their habits and opinions. I agree with this statement.
One primary reason for changing habits and opinions is the expericence of life. When people grow in their life, they learn various things. Like, children learn from schools, adults learn from their workplace or professional life. With leran process, many people get a lot of experience in their life and they change their mind-set as they get older.
Unsuccessful tasks in life may also lead some people to change their habits and opinions. Many people try to do different things in their life, however sometime did not get a positive result. Many people start their own business, rather than doing a job. If they do not get proper output from that work, they change their mind and leave their opinions.
At last, friend circle or a society of many people also results to change the habits and opinions. People have different friends at different places. In school, children have different friend circle but when they grow and start studying in college or either move to the foreign country, their friends change. Thus, some people change their habits when they survive in a different lifestyle.
In conclusion, many people change their habits and opinions when they get older. Habits and opinions depends on success or failure many people may face in their life which could teach them to change their mind-set. Sometime social circle of many people also put effect on it.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0
The response addresses the prompt directly, taking a clear stance that people change their habits and opinions as they age. The student provides several relevant ideas to support this view, such as life experiences, unsuccessful tasks, and the influence of changing social circles. However, these ideas are somewhat limited and under-developed, relying on generalised explanations rather than concrete, fully expanded examples. For instance, the discussion on unsuccessful tasks mentions starting a business, but this point remains brief and lacks specific detail. This places the response comfortably at Band 6, as it addresses all parts of the task with relevant ideas, but those ideas would benefit from deeper extension and more specific exemplification to reach higher bands.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay has a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion, satisfying basic organizational needs. Progression is generally apparent, moving from life experiences to failures and social influences. However, cohesion is at times mechanical or faulty. Transitional phrases like 'At last' and 'In conclusion' are rather basic, and referencing is occasionally unclear, such as 'leave their opinions' instead of changing their views. Paragraphing is used, but the internal logical flow within paragraphs is somewhat disjointed due to repetitive phrasing and limited cohesive devices. These features align well with the Band 6 descriptor, where organization is present but cohesion can be faulty or mechanical.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully using common terms like 'mind-set', 'experience', and 'lifestyle'. There are several attempts to use less common vocabulary, such as 'professional life' and 'social circle', but these are accompanied by noticeable errors in word choice and collocation, including 'expericence' (spelling), 'leave their opinions' (unnatural collocation for changing one's mind), and 'put effect on it' (should be 'have an effect on'). Spelling and word formation errors, such as 'leran', occur frequently enough to occasionally distract the reader, though they do not impede overall communication. This matches the profile of Band 5, featuring a limited but minimally adequate range with noticeable errors.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The writer uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting complex structures with conditional clauses ('If they do not get proper output...') and relative clauses. However, these complex structures are often faulty. There are several grammatical errors and awkward phrasings throughout the text, including 'with the passage of age' (unnatural prepositional phrase), 'Habits and opinions depends on' (subject-verb agreement error), and 'sometime did not get' (tense and subject omission). Punctuation and article usage also show frequent inaccuracies. While communication is not severely impeded, the frequency of grammatical errors places this response securely at Band 5, where attempts at complex sentences are often flawed and errors cause some difficulty.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.