Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-19

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)

I once asked my grandparents about their childhood days and how do they feel now with the drastic development in the technology. I was astonished by their answers. Both of them said that their time was the best time to live and this technological era, though made our lives easy, but have made everything feel artificial.

I could not disagree with them. Despite the available modes of communication and transportation people are distant to one another. In the earlier times, when people only used letters to communicate, they were indeed very close to each other. That sense of personal attachment with the handwriting of their loved ones, that smell of the paper running through the ink on the paper felt more closed than anything that video call could ever achieve. Further, in earlier days when the travel could take days to reach to the destination, but the excitement of the travel and the excitement to see the loved ones made all the travel time worth spending. While the level of excitement with the current travel modes have not gone completely and the travel time reduced to hours, still our ancestors could not help but rate their time as the best.

The one thing that goes against this argument is the medical advacement. Those diseases which were considered fatal are now cured through regular medicines. From diagnosis to the treatment, all have now made the current time beating the old ones.

I often wonder how would be daily chores if I had been living in the 19th Century! No office work, but just managing the business by myself, dealing with the travellers for spices from India. Spending the evenings under the gas lamp with the family. What a time to once experience.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your position is clear: you largely agree that earlier times could feel more meaningful, while recognising modern medicine as a major advantage of the present. You address both questions, and the imagined nineteenth-century life—running a spice business and spending evenings with family—offers a relevant personal example. The comparison between handwritten letters and video calls also supports your view. However, the discussion of why the present is the best time is brief and mainly limited to medical progress, while the alternative period is described more as a scene than explained as an interesting historical context. Develop both sides more evenly, for example by explaining what daily life in the nineteenth century would teach you and acknowledging its disadvantages.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a coherent overall structure: an introduction presents your grandparents’ view, the next paragraph develops the case for earlier times, and the final paragraphs consider medicine and the nineteenth century. Linking expressions such as “Despite,” “Further,” and “The one thing that goes against this argument” help signal the direction of the discussion. At times, however, connections are awkward or repetitive, particularly the repeated references to “the excitement” of travel. The opening also shifts from your grandparents’ opinion to your own without a fully explicit transition. Use clearer topic sentences and make the relationship between each example and your central position more direct; this would make the progression smoother and cohesion less mechanical.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary to discuss communication, travel, medicine, and historical life. Phrases such as “personal attachment,” “fatal,” and “daily chores” show attempts to express ideas beyond basic vocabulary, and the meaning is generally clear. Some word choices and collocations are inaccurate or imprecise, however: “made everything feel artificial,” “felt more closed,” and “medical advacement” weaken the naturalness of the expression. There are also spelling errors, including “advacement,” and some repetition of “exciting/excitement.” Aim for more precise collocations and check spelling during revision. For instance, describe relationships as “closer” rather than “more closed,” and use “medical advances” when referring to progress in treatment.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentences, including clauses beginning with “Despite” and “when,” and most of your meaning remains understandable. Some grammatical errors occur in verb forms, agreement, and sentence construction. For example, “how do they feel now” should be “how they felt then” in this reported question, and “this technological era … have made” needs a singular verb. The sentence beginning “Further, in earlier days when the travel could take days” is incomplete or awkwardly joined to the following clause. There are also tense and conditional issues in “how would be daily chores if I had been living.” Practise reported speech and conditional forms, and review long sentences for complete clauses and consistent agreement.

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