Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-01

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)

The change in people habits and opinions commonly developed with the age. I completely agree with this statement because while growing, individuals face challenges and difficulties that changes their priorities and developed a new habits.

Furthermore, life experiences of each person shift their habits overtime. Many people has changed their habits in their adulthood based on their needs and responsibilities. Often people loose their habits or replace it with the new one depends on their workloads and responsibilities of their family. For instance, although children often have habit of reading books in their free time, in the adulthood due to family time and busy schedule this habit vanished from their lives. However, On the other hand, elderly people often adapt the habit of reading due to plenty of time.

Moreover, facing challenges and difficulties in life changes the way people think which gives them various opinions about particular problem. Younger person without proper knowledge and experience can only provide a limited resolutions whereas person with vast information and practical knowledge can provide better help as they have faced several challenges and experienced failures in their lifes. For example, a young gradute can thinks switching jobs and companies frequently would give him better career boost while the experienced professional thinks that long-term association and job stability will provide better career enhancement.

In conclusion, experiencing various life problems and issues help people grow and with the age people has more

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by taking a clear position and discussing both habits and opinions, though the development is somewhat uneven. The main ideas are relevant, such as how responsibilities shift reading habits and how life experience shapes professional opinions, but some points lack full elaboration. Furthermore, the length requirement is not met, as the response falls slightly short of the 250-word minimum, and the conclusion is left unfinished. To reach a higher level, the writer needs to ensure all ideas are fully extended with supporting explanations and examples, and complete the final paragraph while meeting the word count.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, breaking down the introduction, body paragraphs on habits and opinions, and a concluding attempt. Cohesive devices are employed to connect ideas, such as "Furthermore", "For instance", and "Moreover". However, referencing and cohesion are at times mechanical or slightly faulty, for example in the transitional phrase "However, On the other hand,". The progression of ideas can feel a bit abrupt. To improve, the writer should use a wider variety of cohesive links more naturally and ensure smoother transitions between sentences and paragraphs to establish a more seamless flow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The writer demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as "responsibilities", "long-term association", and "career enhancement". However, there are noticeable vocabulary and spelling inaccuracies that reflect this band level, such as "habits" instead of habit in "The change in people habits", "loose" instead of lose, "gradute" instead of graduate, and awkward phrasings like "developed a new habits". Word choice is generally sufficient to communicate the main arguments, but occasional errors in word form and collocation appear. To achieve a higher band, the writer must expand their lexical repertoire and eliminate basic spelling and word-form mistakes.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The essay features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing clauses introduced by "although", "due to", and "whereas". However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation that typify a lower range of control, such as subject-verb agreement issues ("habits... commonly developed", "individuals... changes"), missing articles ("with the age", "in adulthood"), and awkward phrasing like "a young gradute can thinks". While these errors rarely impede overall communication, they persist across different sentence types. To progress, the writer needs to improve grammatical accuracy, particularly regarding verb forms, singular and plural noun agreements, and article usage.

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

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