Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-10-05

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)

Nowadays, people became more visual, especially with social media. And, since clothes are one of the most recognized things visually; Whether it's good or bad, with purpose or not, gives an impression on the person.

On one hand, Many people care about their clothes choice, whether following trends, big brands marketing, music ...

Especially teenagers, they are influenced by Social media, trends, and Clothes brands marketing. Thats why, year after year we see new types of clothes, sometimes weird clothes,or clothes displaying a meme coming from a trending video. These types of clothes diversity only tells that the person is following trends or influenced by big brands marketing.

Also, there is people who don't care about clothes choice; any clean clothes can do the job. Still you can tell from their simple clothes that they don't care; Still a conclusion.

On the other hand, there are many people who choose carefully their clothes and have purpose; Such as a supportive message, their adherence in a social group, or, the most meaningful for me, a traditional clothes that identify and advertize their culture and country; as an example: you can recognize a middle easterns person or an indian person or and african person only from their clothers.

However, Caring about clothes and valorizing it can make people judge people or be discriminative and thats the trap that many persons are falling into it.

As a conclusion, clothes may tell something about a person, maybe a lot, but not everything; so even if clothes became a mean of expression, we should not be judjemental and hurt people: "don't judge a book by its cover".

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response successfully addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both sides of the argument regarding whether clothing reflects a person's culture and character. Your position is clear throughout the essay, leaning towards the idea that clothes tell a lot but not everything. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others. For instance, the paragraph on teenagers and trending clothes is somewhat repetitive, relying heavily on the general notion of following trends without deep extension. To reach a higher band, you should ensure that every main idea is thoroughly explored with specific examples rather than brief mentions, such as expanding further on how traditional garments serve as cultural advertisements.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear stance split between two opposing viewpoints. You make use of standard linking phrases such as 'On one hand,' 'On the other hand,' and 'As a conclusion' to guide the reader through the text. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical and referencing is occasionally unclear, such as starting sentences with fragments like 'And, since clothes...' or 'Thats why, year after year...'. Paragraphing is present, but internal cohesion within paragraphs could be smoother by avoiding repetitive sentence structures. To improve, you need to use a wider variety of cohesive devices more naturally and ensure logical transitions between sentences.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

Your vocabulary range is adequate for the task, allowing you to successfully communicate your ideas about fashion, culture, and judgment. You attempt less common vocabulary items and phrases, such as 'valorizing it' and 'discriminative,' though this is accompanied by some inaccuracies in word choice, form, and collocation, such as 'clothes choice' instead of 'choice of clothes,' and 'middle easterns person'. Spelling and word-choice errors are present, such as 'judjemental' and 'clothers,' but they do not impede communication. For a higher score, you should focus on precise word formation, correct collocations, and avoiding repetitive use of basic terms.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writing exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an attempt to handle varied structures. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation that pull down the score. You have issues with subject-verb agreement and fragments, such as 'there is people who don't care' and starting sentences with conjunctions incorrectly. Punctuation errors are also notable, including missing apostrophes in contractions like 'thats', unnecessary comma splices, and awkward capitalization within sentences. To improve, you need to exercise better control over basic sentence construction, articles, plurals, and punctuation while producing a higher proportion of error-free complex sentences.

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