Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-10-03

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Employers sometimes ask people applying for jobs for personal information, such as their hobbies and interests, and whether they are married or single. Some people say that this information may be relevant and useful. Others disagree.

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

 

Student answer (Band 5.0)

According to my perspective I believe that only skillset and personality information are necessary for the job instead of asking personal questions which are not co related to the work or the qualification needed by the company. The only thing what matters is the hands on experience of an individual that can elevate or decrease the level of company and apart from that, every question related to personal life is irrelevant but some company evaluate the people by their overall personality which includes their interests in different activities they like apart from the technical skills like singing, writing, reading, traveling and exploring new places, documenting, photography and many more which can open doors for them in many different opportunities in life which is co related to the brand or company. Whereas asking an individal if they are single or married is completely invalid and does not make sense as that information won't be beneficial to the management or company in any way. Some people in the management are least interested in the skillset of an individual but very inclined towards what's happening in their personal life and even I have been through this situation at the time of my placement in the college time when the human resource management head was more involved in knowing what my father does and how is my love life instead of focusing on the requirement of the work which is an essential part of the job. In conclusion I feel that asking personal questions and interests are completely unnecessary and waste of time and energy.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both views—that personal information is relevant versus irrelevant—and presents a personal position. However, the development of ideas remains limited and under-developed. For instance, the discussion regarding hobbies and personality assessment is raised but not fully expanded with clear reasoning or extended examples. Similarly, while the writer mentions an experience during college placements, the example is stated rather than deeply analysed to support the argument effectively. The position is discernible, but the overall treatment of the prompt lacks the thorough exploration required for a higher level, placing this response firmly in the middle band.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.5

The text suffers from a major structural flaw as it is written as a single, massive block of text without any paragraph breaks. Although there is a loose overall progression of ideas—moving from the introduction of the writer's stance to arguments against personal questions, a personal anecdote, and a brief conclusion starting with 'In conclusion'—the absence of paragraphing makes the organisation appear inadequate and mechanical. Furthermore, cohesive devices are weak; sentences are primarily strung together using repetitive conjunctions like 'and' rather than varied referencing or clear discourse markers, resulting in poor flow and cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is of a limited, minimally adequate range suitable for the task. The writer attempts some less common lexical items, such as 'elevate or decrease', 'irrelevant', and 'human resource management', but these are occasionally paired with awkward word choices or minor collocations issues, like 'co related' instead of 'correlated' or 'placement in the college time'. There are also minor spelling and word-form inaccuracies that do not seriously impede communication, but they restrict the precision and flexibility of the writing, reflecting the characteristics of a limited vocabulary band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The grammatical range is quite limited, consisting predominantly of one exceptionally long run-on sentence that spans the entire response. While the writer attempts complex structures, these attempts are often faulty, lacking appropriate subordination and punctuation. There are frequent errors in sentence boundaries, capitalization, and grammatical patterns, such as missing articles ('at the time of my placement in the college time') and preposition usage. These frequent errors in punctuation and sentence construction cause noticeable difficulty for the reader in tracking the logical units of thought, which is typical of a lower intermediate grammatical control.

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