Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-09

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people say that now is the best time in history to be living.

What is your opinion about this?

What other time in history would be interesting to live in?

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Many people like to live their life with the modernized technology while on the other hand some individuals still praises the older time. In my opinion, modern lifestyle has made our life easy and hustle free but the simplicity and stress free life of past era cannot be denied.

In this contemporary world, everyone is enjoying their life with the new innovations and technologies which had made their life easier and fast. Gone are the days when people use to travel bare feet or bullock carts to travel long distances. Now, it becomes far easy to travel to different parts of the world with the innovation of aeroplanes. Additionally, internet has made it very easy to interact with our loved ones who are settled overseas whereas in the past time, it took day or even weeks to send a letter to the relatives.

On the other hand, people who still thinks past time was the best to live have their own reasons to support that. First and foremost, the life was very slow at that time. People were happy to live a simple and peaceful life. There was no competition among the people. There was no corporate era at that time, people spent most of the time while doing farming and household chores. As compared to contemporary world, people of that era were more physically fit and deceased free. There were hardly problems like depression, diabetes, obesity because people were not dependent on machinery to finish there daily tasks.

In conclusion, I would like to restate that change in everything should be welcome.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response addresses the first part of the prompt well, discussing why modern life is beneficial and acknowledging the appeal of the past. However, the second part of the prompt—'What other time in history would be interesting to live in?'—is completely ignored. The essay focuses on a general comparison between the past and present rather than identifying a specific historical period of interest. To reach a higher band, you must ensure every question in the prompt is answered. The ideas provided are relevant, but the lack of response to the second question significantly limits the development of the task.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'Additionally', 'On the other hand', and 'First and foremost' are used to link ideas. However, the progression of ideas is slightly mechanical, and the conclusion is very abrupt, failing to summarize the main points or provide a final thought on the historical period requested. The paragraphing is appropriate, but the overall flow could be improved by using more sophisticated transitions between the contrasting views.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing for clear communication. You use some topic-specific terms like 'innovations', 'contemporary world', and 'corporate era'. However, there are several instances of awkward phrasing and word choice errors, such as 'hustle free' (should be 'hassle-free'), 'deceased free' (likely meant 'disease-free'), and 'modernized technology' (should be 'modern technology'). These errors do not impede meaning, but they demonstrate a limited range of precise vocabulary. To improve, focus on learning common collocations and checking for spelling accuracy.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors throughout the text, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('everyone is enjoying', 'people who still thinks'), incorrect verb forms ('people use to travel' instead of 'used to'), and prepositional errors ('in the past time'). While these errors are frequent, they rarely prevent the reader from understanding your message. To move to a higher band, you need to demonstrate better control over verb tenses and ensure that your complex sentences are constructed with fewer errors.

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

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