Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-30

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 6.5)

It is very common for people to change both their habits and their opinions as they get older. I partially agree with this statement. I believe that there is a strong connection between human nature and their habits. For example it is very tough for a person, who is messy by nature to become organise. It is true that people change over time, as they grow and are exposed to the realities of life but I can not say that it is very common for people to change their habits as they get older, especially those habits that are connected to the person's nature.

Furthermore, I can also not completely disagree with this statement because there are habits that change with circumstances. For example, it might be very difficult for a young person who is working twelve hours a day to develop a habit of reading books, but when he or she will grow older, it is very likely to find some time to develop the habit of reading books.

Additionally, I do completely agree with the other half of the statement that it is very common for people to change their opinions as they get older. Opinions are based on the knowledge of the person and in my view, as the person gets older, the knowledge of the person increases. The reason is that you learn and acquire knowledge as you grow through meeting new people, life exposure and distinct experiences.

Therefore, opinions change and grow stronger as the person gets older. For example, a young person's opinion might be completely opposite to an old person's opinion on life. The old person who had already lived most of his life and had experienced numerous challenges in life would likely to have a stronger and more precise opinion.

In conclusion, I would say that it is very common for people to change their opinions as they get older, however; when it come to habits, some of them change while many of them stays the same.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response7.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.5
Lexical Resource6.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy6.0
Overall6.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

You successfully address all parts of the prompt by taking a nuanced, partial stance on whether people change habits and opinions as they get older. Your position is clear from the beginning and maintained throughout the essay. You distinguish well between habits tied to human nature, which you argue remain stable, and those shaped by changing circumstances. Similarly, you effectively explore the evolution of opinions driven by acquired knowledge and life experience. While your ideas are relevant and generally well-developed, some points, such as the example of reading books or the comparison between young and old opinions, could have been extended slightly further to reach the highest band level. Nevertheless, your response covers the task thoroughly and fulfills all communicative requirements effectively.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

Your essay has a clear overall progression and logical organisation. You make good use of paragraphing to separate distinct ideas, such as your discussion on habits versus opinions. Cohesive devices are employed to guide the reader through your arguments, using connectors like 'Furthermore', 'Additionally', 'Therefore', and 'In conclusion'. However, there are minor cohesion issues and slightly mechanical transitions at times, such as the repetitive use of 'the person' instead of pronouns. Paragraph structuring is sound, but referencing could be smoother to achieve a more natural flow. Overall, the logical structure of your essay is easy to follow and clearly demonstrates the relationship between your main points.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate and functional range of vocabulary suitable for the task. You successfully attempt less common lexical items and phrases such as 'human nature', 'exposed to the realities of life', and 'distinct experiences'. However, there are some noticeable vocabulary and word-choice errors, such as writing 'become organise' instead of 'organized', and minor grammatical collocations like 'life exposure' instead of 'exposure to life'. While these minor lexical inaccuracies do not impede communication, they prevent the essay from achieving a higher band score. To improve further, focus on precision in word forms and incorporating more sophisticated synonyms naturally into your writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mixed range of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating the ability to construct multi-clause sentences such as conditional and relative structures (e.g., 'For example it is very tough for a person, who is messy by nature to become organise.'). There are, however, several grammatical and punctuation errors sprinkled throughout the text, including missing commas, awkward phrasing ('when he or she will grow older'), and incorrect verb forms ('stays the same' where 'stay' is needed for plural habits). Although these errors do not impede overall communication, they occur frequently enough to show a lack of consistent control over complex grammatical structures.

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