Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-18

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people like to try new things, for example, places to visit and types of food. Other people prefer to keep doing things they are familiar with.

Discuss both these attitudes and give your own opinion.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

 

Student answer (Band 6.0)

Many people like to experiment new things, such as explore new places and food. However, others prefer to stick with things they are familiar with. This essay will discuss both attitudes before presenting my opinion. To begin with, many individuals often try new things they never tried before. This is mainly because they want to experience new things,for example, triying different cousines. By visiting new places, visitors explore new things about different cultures and traditions. These new experiences encourage them to visit new areas. For instance, to bring change in thier lives many people try do new activities because they believe following same routine is boring. On the other hand, some people do not try unfamiliar things, they try to follow same routine and activities they are aware. This is mainly beacuse they feel more comfortable and do not want to challenge themselves. For some individuals trying something new food or activity can be challenging and they might feel uncomfortable to do that. That is why people often prefer to do familiar things rather than doing totally different thing. In my opinion, rather than following familiar routine and activities, people should always try do something new in thier lives. By doing new activities, people can enhance their knowledge about different places and foods . In conclusion, although trying new things might be uncomfortable of some individuals, I strongly believe that trying new things can change thier prespectives about food and places. And, experimenting new things provide valuable experiences to people.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.5
Overall6.0

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both attitudes towards trying new things versus sticking to the familiar, and clearly states the writer's personal opinion. Ideas are generally relevant, such as experiencing different cuisines and exploring cultures for novelty seekers, and finding comfort and avoiding challenges for those who prefer routine. However, some ideas are repetitive and underdeveloped. For example, the reasons for preferring routine are slightly circular, stating that people do so because they feel comfortable and want to avoid discomfort. While a clearer extension of ideas would push the score higher, the prompt is adequately covered throughout the essay, aligning well with the Band 6 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay has a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs addressing each viewpoint, a distinct opinion paragraph, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is utilised to separate distinct topics adequately. However, the use of cohesive devices is sometimes mechanical or repetitive, such as the frequent reliance on transitional phrases like 'To begin with', 'On the other hand', and 'In my opinion'. Furthermore, referencing is occasionally imprecise, and the logical progression within paragraphs could be smoother. These limitations place the response comfortably within the Band 6 descriptor range for cohesion and paragraphing.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'cousines' (spelled incorrectly as cousines), 'perspectives', and 'experimenting'. However, there are noticeable spelling errors ('triying', 'cousines', 'thier', 'prespectives') and instances of imprecise word choice, such as 'experiment new things' instead of 'experiment with new things'. While the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the main message clearly, these recurrent lexical and spelling inaccuracies prevent the response from achieving a higher band, reflecting the characteristics of Band 5.0 to 6.0, landing at 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting complex structures with relative clauses and conditional ideas (e.g., 'This is mainly because they want to experience new things...'). However, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly missing prepositions, articles, and spelling/punctuation flaws (e.g., 'try do new activities', 'trying something new food', 'uncomfortable of some individuals'). While these errors do not severely impede overall communication, they occur regularly enough to restrict the grammatical accuracy score to a Band 5.5, showing a balance between simple error-free structures and frequent faulty complex attempts.

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