Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-09-28

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)

Some people argue that old people create problems for goverment and on the other hand some believe there a multipple benefits in having more aged people in the society.

One of the primary advantages of having elderly people is to provide their wise life experience to the younger generation. For example , in many parts of world such as India if a young child is surrounded by his/her grandparents, they tend to get a better upbringing than an unknown nanny or day care because they are not culturally or biologically connected to the child. Elder people can guide and direct the younger generation the right path at different phases of life as they have already experienced it.

Second advantages of having aged people in an office setup is to have more knowledgable person in many situation who have seen the pros and cons of the organisations existence. Aged people are more loyal to an organisation compared to young ambitious people. They carry the experience of different generations which can catered to different kind of sitiations to solve issues. In many major organisations , companies have elder people as board of directors to guide the company which runs sucussfully till date.

Few may believe that aged people are burden to the society as they are retired and dont make a living as compared to the younger generation and they may need extra help to do their day to day work and create problems to the government , but the advantages outweighs the disadvantages as a society and samw elder generation were once young working class and the government had once benefitted from their work and now it is time for the government to take care of the elderly in return.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task and presents a clear position throughout, concluding that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Ideas are extended and supported, such as discussing the cultural and biological connection provided by grandparents in India compared to nannies, and the loyalty and experience older workers bring to office settings. However, there is a tendency to over-generalize in places, and some arguments are slightly under-developed, particularly the counter-argument regarding government burden. The main ideas are relevant and fulfill the prompt requirements, placing this securely at Band 6.5 to 7.0. Given the clear positioning and well-selected supporting examples, a band score of 6.5 is appropriate.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph-by-paragraph structure, including an introduction, two body paragraphs supporting the advantages, a counter-argument/conclusion paragraph, and an overall stance. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical, with instances of awkward signposting like 'Second advantages of having aged people' instead of standard transitions, and missing articles ('goverment', 'right path'). Paragraphing is generally logical, but referencing and linking between sentences can occasionally be disjointed, such as the abrupt transition into the counter-argument paragraph. These features align closely with Band 6.0 descriptors.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common lexical items such as 'upbringing', 'biologically connected', 'pros and cons', and 'ambitious people'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors, including 'goverment' instead of 'government', 'multipple' instead of 'multiple', 'sitiations' instead of 'situations', 'sucussfully' instead of 'successfully', and 'samw' instead of 'same'. Collocations are sometimes awkward, such as 'catered to different kind of sitiations'. While these errors do not impede overall communication, they prevent the score from reaching a higher band. Therefore, a band score of 6.0 is well-justified.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses ('if a young child is surrounded by his/her grandparents, they tend to get...') and conditional structures. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation, including missing articles ('in office setup', 'to younger generation'), subject-verb agreement issues ('Elder people can guide... the right path', 'Aged people are more loyal... which can catered'), and punctuation errors like the space before the comma in 'For example ,'. Although the meaning remains understandable throughout, the frequency of grammatical slips keeps the writing at a Band 6.0 level.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.