Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-05

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)

Some people have argued that now is the best time to live and i would say i agree.

To begin with, we are living in a time where the world is developing rapidly and this could be seen in the evolution of technology. Many Household appliances are being maufactured to make our daily lives easy. An example of this is washing machine which helps with laudry and a list of others.

Today we have more people who have had access to education and doing amazingly well in their various fields. Women are taking up professions and building a life for themselves and competing with men as against the stereotype where they were only alloowed to have children and carryout housechores.

Another reason for this opinion is that, compared to history where people died from all kinds of diseases because they relied solely on herbs and sometimes these medications couldn't do more to save them. Living in a time where scientific research are being carried out by medical professionals and solutions are discovered to help with terminal illness is amazing. An example is supplements.

In history, agriculture was the way of life as farming was a great profession. People ate healthy foods, had more children, and they lived longer. However these days we are plagued by unhealthy foods packaged in containers toxic for human health and has been a significant factor in the rise of terminal illnesses.

It would be interesting to live in a world where young scientists would collaborate with elders and ideas will be infused to produce better drugs as the chemicals used in manufacturing drugs these days causes bad side effects that sometimes lead to infertility. Additionally, People would get married the proper way by taking necessary steps to see both families. Now we have young people cohabiting with marriage and having children hence the reason for the rise in Divorce.

In conclusion, the world is developing and people are really getting exposed to better ways of life. The downside of this is that cultures are being neglected. Bulk of the food produced are contaminated. I believe if better quality measures are put in place, it'll help to curb down some of these problems.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address all parts of the task by giving your opinion that the present is the best time to live and suggesting another interesting period, such as the past with different scientific approaches and traditional marriage values. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others. For example, your points on technological advancements and women in the workforce are supported with relevant examples like washing machines and shifting societal roles. On the other hand, the discussion on historical agriculture and modern food is somewhat under-developed and introduces slight contradictions regarding health and lifespan. To move up, ensure that every main idea is extended and supported with equal clarity and depth throughout the essay.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

Your essay has a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction and conclusion, and you use basic cohesive markers such as 'To begin with', 'Another reason', and 'In conclusion' to signal the flow of ideas. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty, and referencing is not always clear. For instance, the transition into the fifth paragraph about historical agriculture disrupts the logical progression of your arguments about the modern era. Additionally, referencing words like 'this' in phrases like 'and has been a significant factor' lack a clear, immediate antecedent. To achieve a higher band, work on smoother transitions between paragraphs and ensure that referencing pronouns point unambiguously to their intended nouns.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common vocabulary such as 'evolution', 'professional', 'supplements', and 'cohabiting'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors that prevent a higher score, such as 'maufactured' instead of manufactured, 'laudry' instead of laundry, 'alloowed' instead of allowed, 'carryout' instead of carry out, and 'housechores' instead of house chores. Furthermore, phrases like 'curb down' show some inaccuracy in collocation and phrasal verb formation. To improve, you should refine your spelling accuracy and aim to use less common lexical items with greater precision and stylistic awareness.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You successfully use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating clauses with 'where', 'who', and 'that' to build your arguments. There are, however, some errors in grammar and punctuation that persist throughout the text. These include missing capitalisation and punctuation at the very beginning of the essay ('i would say'), incorrect subject-verb agreement or missing articles in phrases like 'scientific research are being carried out' and 'is washing machine', and prepositional issues within grammatical patterns such as 'cohabiting with marriage'. These errors rarely impede communication, but to reach the next band, you need to produce a higher proportion of error-free sentences and demonstrate tighter control over complex grammatical structures.

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

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