Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-12

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)

It is undeniably true that a history is the identity of the nation. Owing to this, a large number of people believe that current time is best time for human to enjoy the life. I partially agree with this statement and I will explain which another would be best to live the life. Along with this, I will also give the relevant example in the subsequent segments.

Commencing with the why I think it is good to live in current era. Firstly, it would be great to enjoy the current pace of life with technology and scientific innovations. To be more clear, due to advancement in technology people can easily commute from one place to another, which help them to give an opportunity to meet with those people or friends who are living far away from them. So, technology makes live and travelling smoother that rise the interest to live the current time of the life.

Turning towards the other side, no doubt current is enjoyable but people have to work hard in today's time period in order to secure the future. To live the lavish lifestyle folks have to do hard work to make their future better. With the hard work they experience problems which make them wise and they can learn a lot that help in future. With these experiences they can get the job. So all of these helps in further year of the life.

In my opinion, if I get the chance I would like to live in European culture from 14th to 17th centuries. I want to live in that life because in that period they create arts and develop more cultural movement. In that time there was no any discrimination and racism.

In conclusion, it is evident that no doubt current is the best time to live but in order to make future better people need to do efforts in current to make their future best and secure.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: it gives an opinion on whether the present is the best time to live and identifies another interesting historical period (the 14th to 17th centuries in Europe). A clear position is established in the introduction, where the writer states partial agreement. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive. For instance, the discussion on the present era relies heavily on basic points about technology and travel without deep exploration. Similarly, the alternative historical period is introduced with very brief reasoning regarding art and cultural movements, followed by a sweeping historical inaccuracy regarding the complete absence of discrimination and racism. Overall, the task is addressed, but the depth of support places this performance in the Band 6 range.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a discernible logical progression. Paragraphing is utilised to separate the introduction, body points, and conclusion, which helps guide the reader through the text. Cohesive devices are attempted, such as 'Commencing with', 'Turning towards the other side', and 'In conclusion'. However, some transitions are mechanically applied or awkward, such as 'Commencing with the why I think it is good', which contains a grammatical flaw in referencing. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and some sentences feel disjointed rather than naturally flowing. Paragraphing structure is adequate, but transitions between ideas require smoother integration to achieve a higher band score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'innovations', 'commute', and 'lavish lifestyle'. However, there are noticeable word-choice errors, awkward collocations, and missing articles throughout the text, such as 'current time is best time', 'makes live and travelling smoother', and 'do hard work'. Additionally, some words are used incorrectly in context, such as stating that history 'is the identity of the nation' as an opening premise. While communication is not severely impeded and the vocabulary suffices to convey the core meaning, the frequency of lexical inaccuracies prevents the score from reaching Band 6.5 or higher.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilising subordinate clauses and introductory phrases. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are frequent errors in article usage, subject-verb agreement, and prepositions, such as 'a history is the identity', 'Commencing with the why I think', and 'there was no any discrimination'. Furthermore, sentence structures occasionally break down or become convoluted, as seen in 'due to advancement in technology people can easily commute from one place to another, which help them to give an opportunity'. These errors cause occasional difficulty for the reader and demonstrate that control over complex structures is still developing, fitting the Band 5.0 descriptors well.

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

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