Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-16
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 6.0)
People who say that now is the best time to be living has definitely not lived in the past and are making such opinion based on the life they are living now. I would not say now is not the bestime in history to be living though because of same reasons.
I think when people say this, they most likely are focused on the advancement the world has made through the years. There has been a lot of progress in technology which has impacted main spheres of life including food, housing, health, and fashion. Life has been made easier with these infrastructures. We can communicate with people through distances. Researchers have made cutting edge breakthrough in life threatening diseases. And many more developments in progress.
However, with these great advances comes disadvantages. The 80's would have been an interesting time in history to live in because those times were more peaceful. People lived as a community, depending on each other compared to nowadays where no one believes in neighborhood. I remember when I was a little child, we would visit my grandparents of blessed memories in our village during holidays. In the evening, I, my siblings and other distant cousins would sit under a tree by the fire while my grandmother tell us tales about the past and her wild experiences growing up. In those times, there were no telephones, internet, nor social media distractions. When she talks about those moments, I could see from her eyes that these were exciting times which we would never experience in our lifetime.
In conclusion, even though it feels like we have interesting lives nowadays, the past was also beautiful even though we have missed out on it and we can only hope to emulate the positive qualities therein.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 6.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 6.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0
You address both questions: you discuss why the present may be considered a good time to live and identify the 1980s as another interesting period. Your position is present, but the opening is difficult to interpret: “I would not say now is not the bestime” uses a double negative, so it is unclear whether you agree that today is the best time. The technology paragraph gives relevant examples, including communication and medical research, while the account of visiting your grandparents provides vivid personal support for your view of the past. However, the claim that the 1980s were “more peaceful” is asserted rather than explained, and the comparison between past and present could be developed more directly. Clarify your opinion and support the broader claims with specific reasoning.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, a paragraph on modern advances, a paragraph about the 1980s, and a conclusion. The contrast signalled by “However” helps the reader follow the shift from benefits today to the appeal of the past, and the family anecdote gives the second main paragraph a clear focus. At times, though, progression and connections are uneven. “And many more developments in progress” is a fragment that does not integrate smoothly with the preceding examples, while the opening’s double negative makes the argument’s direction hard to follow. The conclusion also repeats the contrast without clearly resolving your position. Use clearer topic sentences and link each example explicitly to your answer.
Lexical Resource: Band 6.0
You use an adequate range of vocabulary for the topic, including “advancement,” “cutting edge breakthrough,” “life threatening diseases,” and “social media distractions.” These choices help you discuss technology and changing social life, and the personal account adds concrete detail. Some expressions are imprecise or awkwardly combined, however, such as “impacted main spheres of life,” “communicate with people through distances,” and “no one believes in neighborhood.” “Bestime” also appears to be a spelling or typing error. Aim for more natural collocations and precise wording: for example, describe technology as having “transformed key areas of life,” and say people can “communicate across long distances.” This would make your ideas clearer and more fluent.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including the contrastive construction “even though …” and the longer sentence describing your childhood visits. Meaning is generally understandable, but some grammatical errors remain. In the opening, “People … has” should be “People … have,” and “I would not say now is not” creates an unclear double negative. In the anecdote, “my grandmother tell us” should be “my grandmother told us,” and “we would visit my grandparents … in our village” would be clearer with a more controlled clause structure. The sentence beginning “There has been a lot of progress” is followed by the fragment “And many more developments in progress.” Check agreement and tense consistency, and revise fragments into complete sentences while retaining your attempts at complex structures.
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