Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-17

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 5.5)

There has been an ongoing debate between people where some of them says that advertising is extremely successful at persuading us to buy things and some says that advertising is so common that we no longer pay attention to it.

People who are in favor of the view that advertisements are successful at persuasion might think this way because of several reasons.

Firstly, this is the era of digital media and in order to grab the attention of the people, visually appealing advertisements are important. For instance, people usually buy stuff only because it looked pleasing to them or they heard about it from somone not because they really needed it.

Secondly, even if they had a bad experience with any of the brands they still buy it if the advertisement shows a new and improved version of it.

On the other hand, people who say that they do not really pay much attention to advertisements because they are so common might be because they are not really into watching T.V and using other social media platforms where they are more likely to see advertisements.

Moreover, one important reason could be that they are the people who donot get influenced easily.

Overall, I believe both the views are valid enough at their own place but if i will have to give my opinion, then I would say people in this fast paced world where luxury is idealized and adored, do have the tendency to get influenced easily by the advertisements just to fit in the society.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both views required by the prompt and presents a clear personal opinion in the conclusion, stating that people easily get influenced by advertisements to fit into society. Ideas are introduced to support both perspectives, such as the role of digital media and the appeal of visual content for the first view, and the lack of engagement with media or naturally independent attitudes for the opposing view. However, several of these ideas remain somewhat limited and under-developed rather than fully extended with deep elaboration or robust examples. For instance, the mention that 'they are the people who donot get influenced easily' lacks further expansion. Consequently, the task response aligns best with the Band 6 descriptor, where all parts are addressed but some points feel underdeveloped.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a recognisable introduction, body paragraphs addressing each viewpoint, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used to separate different ideas, which helps readability. However, cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or basic, relying on simple connectors like 'Firstly,' 'Secondly,' and 'Moreover.' Referencing is occasionally slightly vague, as seen in phrases like 'some of them says' and jumping between pronouns without clear antecedents. Overall organisation is logical enough to follow easily, but the lack of flexible and varied cohesive phrasing keeps this criterion at a Band 6 level.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully communicating everyday concepts related to advertising, media, and consumer behaviour. Words like 'visually appealing,' 'persuading,' 'perspective,' and 'fast paced world' demonstrate a functional lexical resource. There are occasional word choice and phrasing inaccuracies, such as 'at their own place' instead of 'in their own right,' and minor spelling or typo issues like 'somone' and 'donot.' Less common vocabulary is attempted with limited success rather than complete precision. This performance sits comfortably in the Band 6 category, offering enough flexibility for the task while containing noticeable minor errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an attempt to vary sentence structures with clauses starting with 'even if,' 'in order to,' and 'where luxury is idealized.' However, there are persistent grammatical errors and inaccuracies, including subject-verb agreement issues such as 'some of them says' and 'people who says,' punctuation lapses in compound structures, and awkward phrasing like 'if i will have to give my opinion.' While these errors do not severely impede communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent the response from achieving a higher band. The presence of a mixed error profile alongside a moderate range of structures justifies a Band 6 score.

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