Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-21

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In the future nobody will buy printed newspapers or books because they will be able to read everything they want online without paying. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Group or team activities can teach more important skills for life than those activities which are done alone. To what extent do you agree or disagree? add topic sentence

Some people believe that group or team activities can teach more important life skills than activities done alone. I largely agree with this view, because team work helps to learn communication, cooperation, and develop leadership qualities. However, through individual activities people can learn independence and discipline.

One of the major benefits of group activities is that they teach us how we can communicate and cooperate effectively with others. When people work in a team they share different ideas and listen to everyone's opinion, and also share different responsibilities. For instance, people are playing in a football team where they learn to support their team mates towards achieving a common goal. Therefore, these skills help them in other ways, specifically at the place, when people work together and deliver a project sucessfully.

Another significance of team activities is leadership and problem solving. Working with others always involved disagreement, difference of opinion and facing unexpected challenges. In this situation participants learn how to negotiate with each other and find the solutions collectively. Additionally, some people take the responsibility for organizing the task and motivate other members. This enhances their leadership abilities.

However, Individual activities also play a major role to develop different important life silks. Activities like reading, workout, learning music, can improve concentration, self discipline and independence. Such as, a student who used to study alone stays motivated and manages time without relying on others. This is how he learns how to maintain discipline and it makes himself independent.

In conclusion, although individual activities help to develop life qualities, collective activities play a more essential role in an individual's life. They learn a wider range of skills, such as leadership, communication and support others.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The candidate has addressed all parts of the task, presenting a clear position throughout the response. The prompt actually asked about printed newspapers and books versus online reading, but the student's text strangely addresses the topic of group versus individual activities ('Group or team activities can teach more important skills for life...'). Despite this complete misunderstanding of the actual task prompt in the text itself, the student has developed their ideas well within the context of the essay they wrote, providing explanations and examples for both team and individual activities. However, because the response answers a completely different prompt than the one provided by the user, this severely limits Task Achievement under official IELTS guidelines, as the main task was not addressed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay demonstrates a clear overall progression of ideas, with a logical paragraph structure. Each body paragraph introduces a distinct sub-topic, such as communication and cooperation in paragraph two, and leadership and problem-solving in paragraph three. The student uses standard cohesive devices appropriately, such as 'One of the major benefits', 'Another significance', 'However', and 'In conclusion'. Paragraphing is handled sufficiently, separating different arguments and the introduction from the conclusion. Referencing is generally clear, and although some mechanical transitions appear, the logical organization allows the reader to follow the train of thought without difficulty, placing it comfortably in the band 6 to 7 range.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for discussing general topics. There are attempts at less common lexical items such as 'cooperation', 'leadership qualities', 'negotiate', and 'collectively'. However, there are several word choice and spelling inaccuracies, such as 'sucessfully' instead of 'successfully', 'involved' instead of 'involves', 'silks' instead of 'skills', and awkward phrasing like 'makes himself independent'. Despite these flaws, communication is rarely impeded, and the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the intended meaning, matching the criteria for band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms. The student successfully constructs complex sentences, such as 'When people work in a team they share different ideas and listen to everyone's opinion', demonstrating a decent range of grammatical structures. However, there are frequent minor errors in punctuation, article usage, and prepositions, such as 'at the place, when people work together', 'play a major role to develop', and 'Activities like reading, workout, learning music'. While these errors are noticeable and detract from precision, they do not impede communication, supporting a solid band 6.0 score.

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

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