Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-10-05

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)

The most important thing about being rich is that one has the opportunity to help others and those who are in need. I completely agree with this as wealthy people has the power to change the life of the less fortunate people.

To begin with, helping others is the greatest form of kindness to one another. Wealthy people has the ability to change someone's life and also it makes them the highest regards in the society. All the rich people over the globe such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, etc have their own foundation for the community. They give charity, donations to the hospitals, relief camp, anything that happens in the community. They really change many people lives and also many students in the form of scholarship such as University or school. Besides, the most richest people in my country (India) are the Ambani's family.

On the other hand, wealthy people have financial securities and stress free life throughout their career but there were some rich people who doesn't help others even though they have enough opportunity to help. Instead they spend on their extravagant lifestyle, partying, more on luxury goods. In addition, I saw many rich people in my hometown who never mingle with the community or the society. Being rich does not guarantee generiosity.

In conclusion, helping other is a good thing when they help with kindness, humbled and honesty. They make real difference through charity, donations in others life by giving them the new opportunity and new hope of life.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

It is important to note first that the response did not meet the minimum length requirement of 250 words, coming in at 237 words, with 16 words copied directly from the task prompt excluded from the count. Regarding task content, you have addressed the prompt by expressing a clear position of agreement, mentioning how wealthy individuals can effect positive change through philanthropy. However, the development of your ideas remains limited and under-developed. For instance, while you mention prominent figures like Bill Gates and the Ambani family, these examples are presented as brief listings rather than being thoroughly explained to support your argument. Furthermore, your counter-argument in the third paragraph touches upon greedy or self-absorbed rich people, but this point is not fully integrated into a nuanced overall evaluation. To reach a higher band, you need to write more extensively and ensure every main idea is supported by deeper explanations and fully realized examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

Your essay displays some basic organization with discernible introduction, body, and conclusion paragraphs, which gives the text a coherent overall arrangement. However, there is no clear overall progression of ideas throughout the text. The transitions between paragraphs feel somewhat abrupt, and cohesive devices are occasionally inadequate or repetitive, such as the frequent reliance on simple connectors like 'Besides' and 'In addition'. Additionally, referencing is sometimes unclear, particularly in the conclusion where pronouns such as 'they' lack precise antecedents ('helping other is a good thing when they help...'). Paragraphing is used, but the internal logical flow within paragraphs requires stronger linking phrases and better topical progression. To improve in this area, you should practice using a wider variety of cohesive devices more naturally and ensure that each sentence leads smoothly and logically into the next.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You demonstrate a limited but minimally adequate range of vocabulary for the task, allowing you to communicate your main points about wealth and charity. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward word choices that detract from the overall quality. For example, you write 'wealthy people has' (which is a grammatical error, but regarding word choice you use phrases like 'the highest regards in the society' instead of 'held in the highest regard') and 'most richest', which is a double superlative. Other vocabulary issues include 'generiosity' (spelling error), 'humbled' used as an adjective instead of 'humble', and 'stress free life'. While you attempt some less common vocabulary items such as 'extravagant lifestyle' and 'philanthropy' equivalents, the persistent errors in word form, spelling, and collocation can occasionally cause slight difficulty for the reader. Expanding your vocabulary and paying closer attention to word families will help elevate your lexical score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

Your writing shows a limited range of grammatical structures, relying mostly on simple sentences alongside a few basic attempts at complex forms. There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text that cause difficulty for the reader. Most notably, there are frequent subject-verb agreement errors, such as 'wealthy people has' instead of 'have', and 'some rich people who doesn't help' instead of 'don't help'. You also make mistakes with pluralization and articles, such as 'change many people lives' instead of 'people's lives' and 'in the form of scholarship such as University or school'. Punctuation and preposition usage within grammatical patterns also need tighter control. To achieve a higher band, you must demonstrate a greater variety of complex sentence structures while significantly reducing the frequency of basic grammatical slips.

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

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