Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-17

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people say that it is possible to tell a lot about a person’s culture and character from their choice of clothes.

Do you agree or disagree?

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

 

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Few individuals believe that it is easy to identify person's culture and character by looking at their clothes. I do agree with the statement because every culture has their own sence of clothing which reflect their culture.

To bigin with, in many countries people follow different old cultures where clothes play an important role in culturism. They showcase few cultural meanings through their clothes, some also have symbols which represent their identity. For instance, in India, there are numerous cultures people preserve by following old traditions. In north part of India there are many sadhus who wear orange to highligh their cast. While on the other hand muslims wear white which is a symbol of peace. These acts showcase their culture and character.

Frthermore, although few people do not follow their culture nowadays but many others follow them. Chinese wear a tong which represents their identity for almost 600 years. If you visit china there are various deep messages printed on their dress. For example, a message called "Powerful society" is designed with red on their coats to show everyone their power and identity. Every other society have their own symbol and message. To my surprise, they even have separate schools for their children where they educate them with their own culture and characters.

To conclude, few people argue that it is quite easy to identify person's culture and character by looking at their clothes. I strongly agree with the statement because I believe clothes are important part of person's identity.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses the prompt by clearly stating a position agreeing that one can tell a culture and character from clothing choices. The ideas are relevant and supported with examples, such as Indian sadhus wearing orange and Muslims wearing white. However, the development of ideas tends to be somewhat generalized and contains factual or cultural inaccuracies (e.g., confusing caste with sadhus, or referring to traditional Chinese garments as a 'tong' with modern printed slogans). Consequently, the response aligns best with Band 6, where the task is addressed with relevant ideas, but some parts are under-developed or contain sweeping generalisations.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into clear paragraphs, including an introduction, two body paragraphs with distinct examples, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices are used to signal progression, such as 'To bigin with' and 'Frthermore'. However, referencing is occasionally unclear, and transitions feel somewhat mechanical. Paragraphing is present and appropriate for the task, but overall logical flow suffers slightly due to abrupt shifts between ideas. This performance matches Band 6 descriptors, which require a coherent overall arrangement even though cohesion can be faulty or mechanical at times.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the student to communicate their main ideas about culture and clothing. There are attempts to use less common vocabulary items, such as 'identify', 'traditions', and 'identity', but these are accompanied by noticeable spelling errors (e.g., 'sence' for sense, 'bigin' for begin, 'Frthermore' for Furthermore, 'highligh' for highlight, 'cast' for caste) and occasional awkward word choices. Because the vocabulary is sufficient for communication despite these errors and spelling slips, the writing fits the Band 5.0 to 5.5 range, leaning towards a solid 5.5 for managing to convey the arguments despite limitations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with missing articles ('in north part of India', 'Chinese wear a tong'), pluralization issues ('Every other society have'), and preposition usage. These errors occur throughout the text, though they rarely impede the overall comprehension of the writer's argument. This balance of mixed structures and persistent errors is characteristic of Band 5, where a limited range of structures is used and frequent errors occur.

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

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