Band 7.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-07-25

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people say that parents should encourage their children to take part in organised group activities in their free time. Others say that it is important for children to learn how to occupy themselves on their own.

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

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

 

Student answer (Band 7.5)

The controversy is whether parents should motivate their offspring to participate in group activities when they are free, or they should be left alone to understand how they can occupy themselves. I opine that taking part in group play allows them to gain social skills and provides efficiency than staying alone at home and solving puzzles.

Explaining my view on encouraging adolescents to take part in groups, the major reason is that they develop social skills when they get in touch with others. When they play with several members in a team, they get to learn skills like how to behave in different situations in day-to-day life, teamwork, leadership, and patience. Consequently, this helps them to become a great citizen in future. In addition, getting in touch with peer groups everyday makes youngsters efficient because they need to remain alert throughout the group sport to help their team to win the match. Similarly, they remain active while doing their regular daily activities, school exercises and preparing for exams. To exemplify, in most international countries, parents let their children to be a part of social clubs from their early age so that they can obtain some social skills required for their future.

On the other hand, some mothers and fathers believe that their young ones should be aware about different ways of keeping themselves occupied because they contend that children can focus more on their career if they do not get involved in social activities. They confirm that by staying alone their mind will be focused on their own work such as school exercise, revision, learning new skills such as cooking, and drawing etcetera. As a result, they will be able to concentrate on themselves and gain more skills required for them to fulfilling their basic needs independently. For example, in most families in India, both parents are working and they let their children stay alone at home so that they can learn how to spend time alone, manage their tasks at their own and solve problems by themselves.

To conclude, although children can learn how to focus or concentrate on work by staying at home, it is essential for them to take part in group activities to gain social skills and activeness so families should support them to get involved in those activities.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, discussing both perspectives and providing a clear personal opinion in the introduction and conclusion. The ideas are relevant and generally well-developed. For instance, the benefits of group activities (social skills, leadership) and the advantages of independent time (focus, self-reliance) are clearly articulated. However, some arguments, such as the claim that group sports make children 'efficient' in school exams, are slightly tenuous and could be more logically connected. Overall, the position is consistent throughout the essay, and the response meets the requirements of the task effectively.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.5

The essay is logically organized with a clear progression of ideas. Each paragraph has a central theme, and the transition between the two viewpoints is smooth, using appropriate cohesive devices like 'On the other hand' and 'In addition'. Paragraphing is used effectively to separate the different arguments. While some cohesive links are slightly repetitive or mechanical, the overall flow is clear and easy to follow. The introduction and conclusion serve their purposes well, framing the discussion effectively. The logical structure ensures that the reader can easily navigate the writer's arguments.

Lexical Resource — Band 7.0

The vocabulary is generally adequate and appropriate for the task. The writer uses some good collocations such as 'participate in group activities', 'social skills', and 'remain alert'. However, there are some instances of slightly unnatural phrasing, such as 'great citizen in future' (should be 'a good citizen in the future') and 'international countries' (which is redundant). While the range is sufficient to convey meaning clearly, it lacks the sophistication and precision required for a higher band score. The use of vocabulary is consistent but does not demonstrate a wide range of less common lexical items.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 7.0

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There is a good attempt at using complex sentences, such as 'Although children can learn how to focus... it is essential for them to take part...'. However, there are several grammatical errors, including article usage ('in early age' should be 'at an early age'), prepositional errors ('get in touch with' is used slightly incorrectly in this context), and minor subject-verb agreement issues. Despite these errors, the meaning remains clear throughout, and the mistakes do not impede communication. The punctuation is generally accurate.

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