Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-08-24

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people say that advertising is extremely successful at persuading us to buy things. Other people think that advertising is so common that we no longer pay attention to it. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Student answer (Band 6.0)

It is widely argued that advertisements often influence individuals to purchase items, whereas others believe that it has become a lot common nowadays and people hardly pay attention to it. I support the former view; however, both perspectives will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

Supporters of the first school of thoughts claim that ad fatigue is very common nowadays. People are less likely to pay attention to advertisements due to overexposure. In addition to that, advanced technological features, for instance, ad blockers in browsing software and skip ads in YouTube have provided people an option to not consume the advertisements. Hence, due to repetitiveness and monotone behavior of advertisements in certain categories, people tend to avoid it. Therefore, due to the saturation, people prefer to not consume advertisements and related content anymore.

While the critics of aforementioned view, including me, claim that advertisements play a keen role in influencing people as the companies are using psychological and emotional methods of getting popularity among individuals through advertisements. They target audiences as per their requirements, interests and age groups. Moreover, influencers are highly paid in order to promote a product as per the target groups and category on various platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. Therefore, it affects a wider audience and as a result, surge the sale and the popularity of the product.

In conclusion, while advertisements have become repetitive and monotonous and fail to gain consumers attention, I believe that due to emotional relevance and psychological tactics of promotion, many big brands and companies are thriving solely on the basis of the influence of advertisements.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses both sides of the argument and provides a clear personal opinion. However, the development of ideas is somewhat uneven. The first body paragraph focuses on 'ad fatigue' but confuses the prompt's premise by labeling it as the 'first school of thought' when it is actually the second view mentioned in the prompt. Additionally, the explanation of why people ignore ads is a bit repetitive. The second body paragraph is better developed, using specific examples like influencers and psychological tactics. To reach a higher band, ensure that the arguments are balanced in depth and that the introduction clearly distinguishes between the two perspectives presented in the prompt.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is logically organized into paragraphs, and there is a clear progression of ideas. Cohesive devices such as 'In addition to that,' 'Hence,' and 'Moreover' are used to link sentences. However, some transitions feel slightly mechanical, and the referencing in the second body paragraph ('critics of aforementioned view') is a bit awkward. Paragraphing is used appropriately, and the overall structure is easy to follow. To improve, focus on using a wider variety of cohesive devices and ensuring that the relationship between sentences is more fluid and less reliant on standard transition markers.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The range of vocabulary is adequate for the task. You have used some topic-specific terms like 'ad fatigue,' 'overexposure,' and 'psychological tactics.' However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'a lot common' (should be 'much more common') and 'keen role' (should be 'key role'). The phrase 'surge the sale' is also grammatically incorrect in this context. While the vocabulary is sufficient to convey your meaning, incorporating more precise academic collocations would elevate the score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors, such as 'skip ads in YouTube' (should be 'skipping ads on YouTube'), 'provide people an option' (should be 'provide people with an option'), and 'gain consumers attention' (missing apostrophe: 'consumers''). Some sentences are slightly clunky, such as 'the critics of aforementioned view... claim that advertisements play a keen role.' While these errors do not impede communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent a higher score. Focus on subject-verb agreement and correct preposition usage.

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