Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-09-12

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In many countries, people are now living longer than ever before. Some people say an aging population creates problems for governments. Other people think there are benefits if society has more elderly people.

To what extent do the advantages of having an aging population outweigh the disadvantages?

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

In many nations life expectancy has increased than ever before, and some people argue that ageing population creates problems for governments while others argue that there are benefits if society has more older people. There are a lots of advantages of having ageing population with very few disadvantages.

Nowadays, people are more conscious about their health, they do exercise daily, eat healthy foods, which makes their life expectancy longer. There are a lots of advantages of have more aging populations and one of the benefit is that they can be helpful in households works. People with kids can go to their work freely leaving their kids with their grandparents. Kids learn new things with their grandparents, they learn social norms and values, which is very useful in future. Older people are also very helpful in house works like cutting vegetables and cooking foods, which could help younger people to focus in their work or study

Similarly, older people are very helpful for the society, they can teach other kids about moral and social values too. Furthermore, they can help with their experience and make the life easier. Despite these advantages some people might take them as a burden. In this expensive world, people might not give time to their parents. Also, government allocate huge amount of money for the old age funds, which can be used for other development works.

In conclusion, older people are very important for maintaining social harmony and prosperity. Despite some disadvantages, I think there are more advantages of having an ageing population so advantages completely outweigh the disadvantages.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the task and presents a clear position throughout. The writer explores both the advantages and disadvantages of an aging population, ultimately concluding that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. However, the ideas are somewhat repetitive and under-developed, particularly when discussing the disadvantages, which are limited to financial costs and a lack of time from busy children. For example, points regarding household help and childcare are brought up multiple times across paragraphs. This prevents the response from reaching a higher band. Overall, the performance aligns well with Band 6.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay has a coherent overall arrangement with clear introduction and conclusion paragraphs. Ideas are generally grouped logically, with body paragraphs dedicated to advantages and disadvantages respectively. However, cohesion at the sentence level is occasionally faulty or mechanical. For instance, the transition "Similarly, older people are very helpful for the society" in the third paragraph feels repetitive rather than progressive, as similar points about helping kids and society have already been mentioned. Paragraphing is present, but internal transitions could be smoother. Referencing is sometimes unclear, such as the pronoun use in "make the life easier." This performance fits Band 6.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, but lacks flexibility and precision. The student attempts some less common vocabulary such as "life expectancy" and "social norms and values," but these are offset by frequent repetition of basic words like "helpful," "lots of," and "older people." There are also noticeable word choice and collocation errors, such as "ageing population creates problems" (missing article), "household works," and "cooking foods." While these errors do not impede communication, the repetitive nature and limited precision place the response securely at Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer employs a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as conditional or relative clauses like "People with kids can go to their work freely leaving their kids with their grandparents." However, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with missing articles ("ageing population," "one of the benefit"), pluralization ("house works," "foods"), and preposition usage ("focus in their work"). While these errors do not seriously impede overall comprehension, they occur regularly throughout the text. The command of grammar and punctuation demonstrates the characteristics of Band 5.5.

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