Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-10-23

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 6.5)

Elderly population is increasing in many parts of the world. In my opinion, although aging population provides guidance with their experience and knowledge and helps the society through volunteering, the disadvantages such as increased healthcare expenses and shrinking workforce outweighs the advantages.

There are two main advantages of having an aging population. Firstly, the elderly can guide the modern society with their experience and knowledge in various fields helping the nation prosper further. This may include guidance in setting up new industries and infrastructure that might help the younger generation. Furthermore, an aging population may help society with different voluntary works. For instance, retired teachers can train new teachers. As a result, the training expense of countries for new teachers may reduce.

On the other hand, there are significant economic disadvantages that outweigh the advantages. The principal drawback to having an aging population is increasing expense in pension for governments. Governments have to support their senior citizens with pension schemes and an increasing pension expenditure might affect the countries economy. Furthermore, an increasing senior citizen population causes worforce shrinkage resulting in economic shrinkage as well due to less domestic productcs and services produced. When there are less people working and more people getting pension this creates an economic imbalace that countries could hardly recover from despite the advantages.

In conclusion, there is an ever rising aging population today in some countries compared to before. In my view, while having an increasing elderly population might help in somecases, the drawbacks are significant to the countries economy.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

Your position is clear from the introduction: you acknowledge guidance and volunteering as benefits, but argue that the economic drawbacks are greater. Both sides are addressed, and the examples of retired teachers training new teachers and governments funding pensions are relevant. This meets the task well, while the comparison is not fully developed enough for a stronger response. In particular, the workforce point is asserted rather than explained in detail, and the claim that countries could “hardly recover” is broad and unsupported. The conclusion restates your view but could more directly weigh the benefits against the costs. Develop one or two consequences with a specific explanation or example to make the argument more convincing.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for advantages and disadvantages, and a conclusion. The progression from the benefits to the more significant economic costs is easy to follow, and signposts such as “Firstly,” “Furthermore,” and “On the other hand” help guide the reader. This is a logical and effective arrangement. Some linking is a little mechanical, however, and the final sentence of the disadvantages paragraph combines several claims without clearly showing how they connect. For example, explain the chain from a smaller workforce to lower production and greater pension pressure. More varied transitions and clearer referencing between related points would make the flow more flexible.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of topic vocabulary, including “pension schemes,” “voluntary works,” “infrastructure,” and “economic imbalace,” and the main ideas remain understandable. There are also attempts at more formal phrasing, such as “principal drawback.” However, some word choices and collocations are inaccurate or imprecise: “workforce shrinkage” and “economic shrinkage” are less natural than established alternatives, while “less domestic productcs and services” does not express the intended idea clearly. Spelling errors such as “worforce,” “imbalace,” and “productcs” also reduce accuracy. Aim for precise, natural combinations and check spelling carefully, especially in key topic terms.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including clauses with “although,” “while,” and “when,” and most sentences communicate the intended meaning. Some grammatical errors remain. In the opening, “the disadvantages … outweighs” has a subject–verb agreement problem; the plural subject requires “outweigh.” Articles are also missing in phrases such as “although aging population” and “modern society,” where “an” and “the” would be appropriate in context. The sentence beginning “When there are less people working” also needs “fewer” with a countable noun, and its connection to the following clause could be punctuated more clearly. Review agreement, articles, and countable/uncountable forms while retaining your complex sentence attempts.

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.