Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-10-04

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people say that music is a good way of bringing people of different cultures and ages together. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

It is observed that music is a great approach of gathering people from diverse cultures and individuals from different age groups together.

Most of the people enoy listening to music. People of different cultures have different interest in music, some prefer to listen to music, not in their native languages, due to the reason of the tunes, some might like slow tunes, some might like beats. Due to their diverse interests in music, human beings tend to listen to music from different cultures, so they can dicover more about the diversity of genre in music. For these reasons they explore types of music from distinct backgrounds, and when they do they start learning about the nations culture, by finding the common things in most of the songs from a single background.

On the other hand listening to old songs what our ancestors used to enjoy tells us what kind of music they prefered depending upon the tunes and the singers. Music from before years had its own tunes that make them different from today's music. Listening them in present days with your ederly makes them happy and they feel nostalagic which makes us love songs of those time too.

From my perspective culture is not limited to one part of the lives of people living in separate culture, it is more about manners, arts, food, dressing and theri lifestyles. So i would say music is one of many things to understand about the culture of diverse cultures. For example whenever I play my father's choice of songs on amlong drive he turns the volume to max, meanwhile we enjoy those songs with him.

In conclusion, people who love to listen to music can learn about different cultures, to some extent I also agree.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the task only partially, presenting a position that is somewhat unclear and underdeveloped. While the writer touches on how music can connect people across different cultures and age groups, the ideas remain limited and lack sufficient extension or support. For instance, the discussion on how exploring music leads to learning about a nation's culture is mentioned briefly without concrete elaboration or strong examples. The conclusion also introduces the writer's stance rather late and somewhat tentatively. To reach a higher level, the response needs to present a fully developed position from the introduction, expand each main body paragraph with more detailed explanations, and ensure that every point directly supports the prompt's central theme regarding both culture and age.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

There is some organisation present, but the overall progression of ideas lacks clarity. The response is divided into paragraphs, but the logical links between sentences are often weak or mechanical. For example, transitional phrases and referencing are occasionally repetitive or vague, such as starting multiple sentences with 'Due to' or 'For these reasons' without a smooth flow of thought. While paragraphs are attempted, the internal cohesion within them fails to guide the reader effortlessly from one point to the next. To improve, the writer should use a wider variety of cohesive devices more accurately and ensure that each paragraph builds logically upon the previous one, creating a clearer overall progression of arguments throughout the essay.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is limited but minimally adequate to convey the basic message. There is a noticeable range of vocabulary related to the topic, such as 'diverse cultures', 'genres', and 'nostalgic', but there are also frequent errors in word choice, spelling, and word form that occasionally cause difficulty for the reader. Examples include 'enoy' instead of enjoy, 'dicover' instead of discover, 'ederly' instead of elderly, and awkward collocations like 'approach of gathering' instead of 'way of bringing'. To achieve a higher band, the writer must expand their lexical range and pay closer attention to spelling, word formation, and natural phrasing, moving beyond basic descriptive terms to more precise and sophisticated vocabulary suited to academic writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The grammatical range is quite limited, relying heavily on simple structures, while attempts at complex sentences are frequently faulty. There are numerous errors in grammar, punctuation, and article usage throughout the text, such as missing articles, incorrect prepositions, and faulty subject-verb agreement. For instance, phrases like 'listening them in present days with your ederly' and 'separate culture' demonstrate grammatical inaccuracies that can cause difficulty for the reader. Furthermore, punctuation is sometimes lacking or misapplied, as seen in run-on sentences. To progress to the next level, the writer needs to demonstrate a greater variety of complex sentence structures with good control, significantly reducing the frequency of basic grammatical errors and improving overall sentence accuracy.

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.