Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-16
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 5.0)
In the modern era, teenagers in many cultures are freeqently encouraged to believe that they can anything if they try hard enough.there are both merits and dimeritsof situation. both will be dicussed in the following paragraphs.
To begin with, encouraging teenagers to believe in themselves can increase their confidence and motivation. when young people have ambitious goals, they may be more willing to study hard and overcome difficultie. Foe example, a students who believes that hard work can lead to success may spend more time improving their academic skill.Moreover, this attitude can teach teenagers to be persistant instead of giving up when they face problems.
On the other hand,telling teenagers that they can achieve anything may create unrealistic expectations. some goals depends not only on effort but on factors such as financial circumstances, opportunities, natural abilities. However, if young people work extremely hard but still fail to achieve their goals, they may feel disappointed or lose confidence. In addition, thi belief can make some teenagers blame themselves for failure, even when circumtances are beyond their control.
IN conclusion, encouraging teenagers to work hard and believe in themselves camn improve their motivation and determination. Morover, they should also understand that success depend on severalfactor besides effort.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The student addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of telling children they can achieve anything. A clear position is established and maintained throughout the essay. However, the ideas lack full extension and development, partly due to the brevity of the response. Furthermore, as noted in the length check, the essay contains only 205 words, failing to reach the minimum requirement of 250 words. This under-length impacts the depth of task fulfilment. Specific points, such as the mention of financial circumstances or natural abilities, are raised but not sufficiently elaborated upon. Consequently, the task achievement is limited by the overall brevity and under-developed support for the main ideas.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, including an introduction, two body paragraphs covering advantages and disadvantages respectively, and a conclusion. There is a basic overall progression of ideas. However, cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or missing entirely, and the referencing is occasionally weak. For instance, the transition between ideas relies on basic connectors like 'To begin with', 'On the other hand', and 'In conclusion'. Paragraphing is attempted, but capitalization and punctuation errors at the sentence and paragraph boundaries disrupt the flow. For example, sentences begin with lowercase letters such as 'there are both merits...' and 'some goals depends...'. These mechanical faults in cohesion and punctuation prevent the response from reaching a higher band.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting words such as 'merits', 'dimerits', 'persistant', and 'circumstances'. However, there are frequent spelling errors ('freeqently', 'dimeritsof', 'persistant', 'circumtances', 'Morover') and word formation issues. Word choice is sometimes imprecise or unidiomatic, such as 'dimeritsof situation' and 'this belief can make some teenagers blame themselves'. While the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the general message, the noticeable spelling errors and limited control over less common lexical items restrict the score to this band level.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as conditional or causal structures ('when young people have ambitious goals, they may be more willing...'). However, grammatical accuracy is weak throughout the text. There are frequent errors in subject-verb agreement ('some goals depends'), capitalization ('there are both merits...', 'IN conclusion'), and missing words or articles ('that they can anything', 'a students'). Punctuation is also problematic, with several run-on sentences and missing capitalization at the start of sentences. These errors occur frequently and occasionally impede the flow of reading, reflecting the descriptor criteria for this band.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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