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)

The present is believed to be the best time to live. I contradict to that statement because current years have been the crucial time for lots of people with alot going around the world. The people alive in this decade have experienced a wide variety of events than most who died earlier.

As we take a look around the world, in the past few years, unusual era of covid-19 happened where everyone around the globe were just locked in their houses and could not get out due to safety concerns, although there was a pandemic and everyone was at their home they had the time with there family that they might not be getting due to the fast paced world. Although, the time flued and that thing is now 6 years old but no ones forget about that time and retains a special memory from that period time.

Additionally, in past couple of year we have seen wars between different countries with everyday as a fear of the next world war. Fights between one group of countries and the other looks like a game but the people who actually live in the country where the bombs are deploits can never throw the fear out of themselves harming their whole life.

Nevertheless, there are times in the past where major events happened in different nations but the current era looks like a combination of all the events that happened in the past.

To conclude, this era has faced alot of hardships and challenges though faced these issues with courage and solutions, the current time can be interesting to read in the future but not the best time for living.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear position ('I contradict to that statement') and discussing why the present is not the best time to live, citing events like COVID-19 and global conflicts. However, the second part of the prompt—asking what other time in history would be interesting to live in—is largely neglected, as the student only briefly mentions that 'the current time can be interesting to read in the future' rather than exploring a specific historical era. This leads to an imbalance in task coverage, meaning the ideas are not fully developed across all parts of the instructions. Therefore, the response fits best at Band 5.5 to Band 6.0. Due to the lack of exploration regarding an alternative historical era, it is best placed at Band 5.5 for failing to fully address all parts of the task.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay displays some overall organization and attempts to use transitional markers such as 'As we take a look around the world', 'Additionally', and 'To conclude'. However, paragraphing and logical progression are sometimes clumsy. For example, the transition between the COVID-19 discussion and the paragraph about wars is abrupt. Cohesive devices are occasionally inaccurate or mechanical, such as 'the time flued and that thing is now 6 years old', which disrupts the natural flow of ideas. Referencing is also occasionally unclear, as seen with pronoun ambiguity. While there is a discernible structure with an introduction, body points, and a conclusion, the logical progression is hindered by awkward phrasing and limited cohesion. This places the response comfortably at Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary for the task, successfully communicating everyday concepts with phrases like 'fast paced world', 'safety concerns', and 'major events'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward word choices throughout the text, such as 'I contradict to that statement' instead of 'I disagree', 'alot' (spelled as one word), 'time flued' instead of 'time flew' or 'time passed', and 'deploits' instead of 'deployed'. Less common vocabulary is attempted but often marred by collocation and spelling issues, for instance, 'retains a special memory from that period time'. These inaccuracies do not entirely impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score to Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some variety through conditional-like structures and subordinate clauses ('the people who actually live in the country where the bombs are deploits can never throw the fear out'). However, grammatical errors are frequent and occasionally cause difficulty for the reader. Issues include preposition and article errors ('in past couple of year', 'with everyday as a fear'), tense inconsistencies ('the time flued and that thing is now 6 years old'), and faulty passive/active verb forms ('bombs are deploits'). While some sentences are accurate, the high frequency of non-systematic errors places this writing firmly at the Band 5.0 level.

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

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