Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-08-28
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
Some say that the most important thing about being rich is that one has the opportunity to help others. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Student answer (Band 5.5)
Many may claim being wealthy rewards with value and status that some may misinterpret for respect. However, in my opinion wealth comes with responsibility to facilitate the under privileged. Thus, I strongly agree that the most important thing about being well off is the opportunity to help others.
Health is of vital importance to all the human beings, whenever someone gets a face-off with serious healthy issues like cancer, treatment becomes utmost priority. Surely poor families require funding in such cases then the foundations funded by the prosperous are the organizations they turn to. Therefore, instead of being redundant to society well-off families prove their worth by being of help in such crucial matters.
Knowledge is considered pivotal for a society to grow, develop and be exemplary for moral values. For infrastructure, health care and technology, knowledge is a necessity that in this modern world is becoming more and more expensive. Thus, the students who are unable to afford their studies need help and the privileged citizens can provide them funding with no markups that way, they will be funding a growth of a whole nation and will be playing a part in development of their country.
In conclusion, being prosperous and wealthy is not for one to become powerful or worthy of respect. However, when they help those in need is when they prove of themselves being useful to nation and being worthy of their wealth and respect from people.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response presents a clear position throughout and addresses the prompt directly. However, the essay is 241 words long, failing to meet the 250-word minimum requirement. This under-length impacts the development of ideas, which remain somewhat general. While the arguments regarding health and education are relevant, they could have been more thoroughly supported with specific examples or deeper analysis to fully satisfy the task requirements. The conclusion effectively summarizes the position, but the overall development is slightly limited due to the word count constraint.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, with a clear introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'However', 'Thus', and 'Therefore' are used to link ideas, although some transitions feel slightly mechanical. The progression of ideas is generally clear, moving from the general concept of wealth to specific applications in health and education. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct points. To improve, you could vary your cohesive devices further and ensure that the relationship between sentences is more fluid.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, with some attempts at more sophisticated language such as 'under privileged', 'pivotal', and 'prosperous'. However, there are some awkward collocations and word choices, such as 'face-off with serious healthy issues' (should be 'face serious health issues') and 'funding with no markups'. While the range is sufficient to convey meaning, it lacks the precision and flexibility required for a higher band. Increasing your use of topic-specific collocations would enhance your score.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors, such as 'whenever someone gets a face-off with serious healthy issues' and 'they prove of themselves being useful'. Punctuation is generally functional, but there are instances where sentence boundaries could be clearer. While the errors do not impede communication, they are frequent enough to prevent a higher score. Focusing on subject-verb agreement and the correct use of prepositions will help improve your accuracy.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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