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 households by income 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 looked average, and did not have a very big difference, except $75,000-$99,999. However, at the end, the number of households did not significantly change.

In 2007, the number of households whose income was 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 was from $50,000 to $74,999, was much lower than the 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 was the smallest in comparison with other 3 incomes, , In 2007 it had over 14 million families, and did not grow 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, was 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 studying additional subjects versus focusing solely on their main qualification. However, the student has written a report describing a bar chart about household income in the US. Because the response does not address the task prompt at all, it fails to meet the requirements of the task. In an actual IELTS examination, this would result in a score of 1 for Task Achievement as it is a memorised or irrelevant response to the specific question asked.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The response is organised into paragraphs, and there is an attempt to use cohesive devices such as 'Overall', 'However', and 'In contrast'. The progression of information is logical in the context of describing a graph. However, because the content is entirely irrelevant to the prompt, the coherence is undermined by the fact that it does not serve the purpose of the essay task. The paragraphing is functional, but the lack of relevance to the actual topic makes the overall structure ineffective for the required task.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for describing statistical data, with terms like 'dramatically rose', 'steadily', and 'in comparison with'. The range is sufficient to describe trends and figures, though it is repetitive in places. There are no significant spelling errors, and the word choice is generally appropriate for a data description task. However, the lexical range is limited to basic descriptive language and lacks the sophistication required for higher bands. It is sufficient for a basic level of communication regarding the data presented.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are some grammatical errors, such as 'at the period from 2007 to 2015 every four years' (awkward phrasing) and 'the number of incomes looked steady' (inaccurate terminology; 'incomes' should be 'households'). Punctuation is generally functional, though there is a redundant comma in 'other 3 incomes, , In 2007'. While the errors do not consistently impede communication, the range of structures is limited, and the accuracy is inconsistent throughout the text.

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

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