Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-13

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In some cultures, children are often told that they can achieve anything if they try hard enough. What are the advantages and disadvantages of giving children this message?

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Around the world, in some cultures, it is believed that encouraging children to work hard, lead them to achieve anything they desire in life. Children are inspired to do their chores by themselves to make them confident.

This is a known fact that confident people with their hard work can achieve anything. But people do not adapt to these qualities overnight, these are indulged into a human when they are young and under parents' supervision. Apprising children of their capabilities at young age benefits them a lot in their later life. When adults, tell their kids, they are capable of doing anything they believe it and instead of just dreaming they start working on their ideas in early age. For example, I once watched a show, where a woman was being interviewed and suddenly heard sound from room, when she investigated, her son tried, about 7 years old, tried to build a rocket. Instead of calling him out and scaring him of his passion, she chose to calm herself and taught her son actual way of doing so. I believe this must had encouraged the child and made him believe in his capabilities, but with right strategy.

Overall advantages of uplifting youngsters, are it makes them confident, they start to believe in themselves and it also improves relationship between parents and children. As parents are sole source of inspiration in early years, they have a lot of responsibility on them to raise confident child. Thay can do this by making them independent in their tasks, which also improves trust of child on parents. In a study conducted on infants, it was proven that they tend to react to different situation according to their parents' facial expressions. It showed a sense of trust they had in parents.

In conclusion, telling children everything is possible, given their efforts. They must not be left with that believe alone but parents must adapt them to work hard by early age. Let them do their own chores, assign them tasks and ask for report. This is how make them understand value of confidence, belief and hard work.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing the advantages and disadvantages of telling children they can achieve anything. However, the treatment of disadvantages is rather superficial; while advantages like confidence and parent-child bonding are explored, disadvantages are largely omitted or only implicitly touched upon (e.g., potential disappointment or unrealistic expectations are not fully developed). The writer takes a clear position throughout the essay, supporting ideas with examples, such as the anecdote about a seven-year-old building a rocket. Although some ideas, particularly in the conclusion, are slightly repetitive, the response successfully presents relevant main ideas that are extended and supported. Therefore, it meets the requirements for a Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, dividing the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion appropriately. Logical sequencing is present, though progression occasionally stumbles due to awkward transitions and run-on phrasing, such as 'Overall advantages of uplifting youngsters, are it makes them confident...'. Cohesive devices are used, but referencing is sometimes unclear, for example, the ambiguous use of pronouns and dangling modifiers ('When adults, tell their kids...'). Paragraphs generally revolve around a central topic, such as confidence-building or parental influence, but the mechanics of cohesion feel strained at times, placing this response firmly in the Band 6 category.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'supervision', 'capabilities', and 'independent'. However, there are noticeable word-choice and collocation errors throughout the text. For example, the writer uses 'lead them' instead of 'leads them', 'indulged into' instead of 'instilled in', 'Apprising' rather than 'Apprising' in an unnatural context, and 'ask for report' instead of 'ask for progress reports'. Spelling is generally acceptable, but lexical inaccuracies sometimes create friction for the reader, matching the profile of a Band 5.5 or 6.0. Given the successful communication despite errors, a Band 6.0 is appropriate.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an attempt at varied structures. However, frequent grammatical errors and punctuation issues persist throughout the text. Examples include comma splices and incorrect punctuation ('...overnight, these are indulged...', 'Overall advantages of uplifting youngsters, are it...'), subject-verb agreement errors ('Thay can do this...'), and fragment sentences ('When adults, tell their kids, they are capable...'). Although these errors do not completely impede communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent the essay from reaching a higher band, making Band 5.0 the most accurate reflection of grammatical control here.

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