Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-09-11

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some university students want to learn about other subjects in addition to their main subjects. Others believe it is more important to give all their time and attention to studying for a qualification. Discuss both these views and give your opinion. Give reasons for your answer and include relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

 

Student answer (Band 4.0)

The given bar chart provides information about the number of household incomes at the period from 2007 to 2015 every four years in the US.

Overall, the number of incomes looked steady without any dramatic rise in each year. For example, at the beginning the incomes looks average, and did not had very big difference, except $75,000-$99,999. However, at the end, the number of households, did not significantly changed.

In 2007, the number of households whose income were less than $25,000 was 25 million, and after 4 years the bar rose steadily to about 28 million. However, the number of families in 2015 dropped to over 26 million. The number of households with income from $25,000 to $49,999, in 2007 was over 26 million. After some amount of time, the bar rose to about 29 million families, and by the end of the period, it decreased to over 27 million.

At the beginning, the number of households whose income were from $50,000 to $74,999, were much lower than other two incomes and had over 20 million. After 4 years it rose steadily to 22 million, and after another 4 years it fell to 20 million again. In addition, the number of families with an income from $75,000 to $99,999 were the smallest in comparison with other 3 incomes, , In 2007 it had over 14 million families, and did not grew until 2015. At the end it increased to about 15 million. In contrast, the number of households with an income from $100,000 and more, were the highest in comparison with other incomes. In 2007 it had over 29 million families, but in 2014 it had decreased to over 27 million. And in 2015 it dramatically rose to over 34 million families.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 1.0

The response is completely off-topic. The prompt asks for a discussion on university students balancing main subjects with other interests, but the student has written a report on a bar chart regarding US household incomes. As the response fails to address the task prompt entirely, it cannot be assessed for task achievement in the context of the essay question. In an actual examination, this would be treated as a memorized or irrelevant response, resulting in a score of 1.0 for Task Response.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The essay is organized into paragraphs, and there is an attempt to use cohesive devices such as 'Overall', 'For example', and 'In contrast'. However, the logical progression is hindered by the fact that the content does not relate to the prompt. The referencing is sometimes unclear, and the transition between ideas is mechanical. While the structure of a report is present, the lack of relevance to the task makes the coherence ineffective for the intended purpose of the essay.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary is limited and repetitive, focusing on basic terms like 'number', 'households', 'income', and 'rose'. There are some inaccuracies in word choice, such as 'did not had' and 'did not grew'. The range of vocabulary is sufficient to describe basic trends in a chart, but it lacks the sophistication or flexibility required for higher bands. The student relies heavily on simple descriptors and struggles with correct verb forms and collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('the number of households whose income were', 'the number of families... were the smallest') and tense errors ('did not had', 'did not grew'). The sentence structures are mostly simple or compound, with limited use of complex structures. Punctuation is also inconsistent, such as the double comma usage in the third paragraph. These errors are frequent and occasionally impede the clarity of the information being presented.

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

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