Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-03

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)

It is quite imperative to say that if children try hard they can be able to achieve anything in their life. This essay would explore the advantages and disadvabtages of this statement.

Key advantage is that hardwork is the key to success and If children develop the habits of doing difficult things then they will become successful. These days students want shortcut to get succeed, for-instance to write a simple assignment of their own subject, they just try to copy everything from AI and dont want to do any creativity. In this way, children learn the habits of laziness and if in future someone ask them about their own ideas, they will fail to perform efficiently. So, children should learn to do difficult things as well so that they will not depend on anything.

Furthermore, difficulty made people stronger. If children had to leave their homes to study abroad then it will be easy for them as they will be adjusted in a good way.

However, It is having some disadvantages as well. Primary disadvantage is children got afraid and scared of work , because they are often told that you will only become credible if you do hard work. Children get bored and they start to run away from work. In such way, children do not even develop a habit of doing simple work and become lazy.

To put in a nutshell I pen down saying that children should be told that they have to do hard work to become successful in live so they develop the habit of doing hard tasks.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of telling children they can achieve anything. However, the ideas remain somewhat limited and under-developed. For instance, the advantage regarding hard work and avoiding laziness is mentioned, but the explanation relies heavily on a single example about AI without fully exploring broader psychological or societal impacts. Similarly, the point about studying abroad is introduced abruptly without adequate expansion. The position is generally clear, but the overall treatment of the prompt stays at a surface level, preventing the ideas from being fully extended.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

There is a basic logical organisation, and the essay attempts paragraphing to separate advantages and disadvantages. However, the progression of ideas lacks smoothness. Cohesive devices are sometimes used awkwardly or repetitively, such as starting paragraphs with basic connectors like 'Key advantage is' and 'However, It is having some disadvantages as well.' Referencing is occasionally unclear, and the mechanical transitions make the flow disjointed rather than naturally progressive throughout the essay.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary is limited and minimally adequate for the task. There are noticeable errors in word choice, collocation, and spelling, such as 'disadvabtages', 'hardwork', 'shortcut to get succeed', and 'live' instead of 'life'. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary, but these attempts are often accompanied by inaccuracies that cause some difficulty for the reader, reflecting a restricted range of lexical control.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The student demonstrates a limited range of sentence structures, relying heavily on simple sentences alongside faulty attempts at complex forms. There are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation, such as missing articles ('if children try hard'), incorrect verb tenses ('difficulty made people stronger' and 'children got afraid'), and awkward prepositional usage. These errors occur frequently throughout the text and require some effort from the reader to decode the intended meaning.

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

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