Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-30

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 6.0)

Giving children that lesson since young age give them confidence and various benifits from the start. I think parents should give them a lesson that u can achieve every thing so they wil try everytihng, however it can cause some disadvantages too.

If children are told from the young age that u can achieve every thing by their parents, it will boost their confidence and moral to try new things. If a child is raised like that in their culture he won't think twice for taking any risk in life, he will be active in every aspect of his life, like if their is a job oppurtunity but it requires alot of hard work, dedication and speaking abitlity infront of a crowd he\she will definetly try to get that oppurtunity because from a young age he have been told that u can achieve anything by his surounding culture so he will be confident in himself to achieve it, another example would be if he have some big goal in his life he will definetly chase it to achieve that goal.

But there are some disadvantages about this approach as well. If a kid is told that he can achive anything by his culture than he can became overconfident in himself, for example. there is an exam in his school if he think's yeah i can pass it easily there is no problem in that and he even might not study for that exam and ended up failing in it, another reason would be that this type of child could be dominant and arrogant to others, like if he thinks he can achieve anything he will try to rule others which is not really a good thing.

In conclusion, kids should be told that they can achive anything in their life but should also be told that they gotta work hard for that thing and even they fail they gotta learn from that.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You address both sides of the question and give a clear overall view: the message can build confidence, but children should also understand that success requires effort and that failure can teach them. The examples about pursuing a demanding job and neglecting exam preparation make the advantages and disadvantages relevant. This meets the task well, though some points are more fully explained than others: the job example is detailed, while the claim that a confident child may become “dominant and arrogant” is asserted rather than clearly linked to the message. To strengthen the response further, explain how parents can encourage ambition without implying that effort guarantees every outcome.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for advantages and disadvantages, and a conclusion. The progression from confidence to possible overconfidence is easy to follow, and signposts such as “But” and “In conclusion” help identify the stages of the argument. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical, with repeated patterns such as “for example” and repeated references to what a child “can achieve.” Some pronouns, including “he” and “they,” shift in reference, which can make the discussion less smooth. Grouping the examples more concisely and using a wider range of linking and referencing expressions would make the progression more flexible and polished.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “confidence,” “hard work,” “dedication,” “overconfident,” and “arrogant.” However, the range is limited and several spelling and word-choice errors are noticeable, such as “benifits,” “oppurtunity,” “surounding,” and “achive.” Informal forms such as “u,” “gotta,” and “yeah” are not suitable for an academic essay, while phrases such as “moral to try new things” and “speaking ability infront of a crowd” are not expressed naturally. Aim for accurate spelling and more precise collocations, and avoid repeating “achieve anything” when you can paraphrase the idea.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentences, including conditional structures such as “If a kid is told…” and a relative clause in “a job opportunity…but it requires…”. These attempts help express examples and consequences, but control is inconsistent. Errors include subject–verb agreement in “Giving children that lesson…give them” and “he have,” article and sentence-structure problems in “from the young age,” and tense or verb-form issues in “ended up failing.” Several long sentences join many ideas with commas, making punctuation and sentence boundaries difficult to manage. Practise building accurate sentences with one main idea at a time, then check agreement, articles, and verb forms in longer clauses.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.