Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-11

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 5.0)

The idea of discussing whether parents should encourage their children to take part in organised group activities or occupy themselves on their own has been meticulous debate among the people and in this essay I am going to discuss about both the views and also share my opinion.

To start with the idea o parents should encourage their children to take part in group activities, This view has now became common among both the parents and the teachers where the children are encouraged to socialise among other children. This helps childrens to share their knowledge or interests with their friends and also reduce cultural diffeerences among them with no barriers like ratialism, languages.

The other idea of people saying it is important that the child should learn how to occupy themselves on their own has a different view points depending on how the individual thinks and also their past stages where they grew and how they were treated because there are so many factors that changes each individual the way they think and their perpectives.

In my opinion one parents should encourage their children to partcipate in group activities as it helps the child to grow their ability to think and take their desicions more presicely by discussing their thoughts and experiences with thier friends and with their group.

In the decade the education system is more confined to or focused on acedemic growth other than

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.0
Coherence and Cohesion5.0
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.0

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both views on children's activities and offering a personal opinion, but it suffers from a significant under-length issue, containing only 236 words against the mandatory 250-word minimum. Furthermore, the development of ideas is limited; the essay trails off abruptly in the final sentence, leaving the conclusion incomplete. While the student attempts to present arguments for both group activities and independent play, the points remain somewhat superficial and under-developed. For instance, the paragraph regarding independent play mentions various psychological factors rather than clearly articulating the core benefits of solitude. Due to the failure to meet the minimum length requirement and the incomplete final paragraph, Task Achievement is restricted to a Band 5.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The essay demonstrates some overall organisation, attempting an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion, though the structure is heavily compromised by the incomplete ending. Cohesive devices are occasionally used, such as 'To start with' and 'The other idea', but they tend to be repetitive and mechanical rather than flexible. Paragraphing is attempted, but the final paragraph breaks off mid-thought, failing to form a cohesive conclusion. Referencing is sometimes unclear, for example in sentences like 'this view has now became common among both the parents and the teachers where the children are encouraged', which creates a run-on feel. Overall, the logical progression is hindered by awkward transitions and the abrupt finish, placing this criterion at Band 5.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student displays a limited but minimally adequate vocabulary for discussing a general topic, using words like 'socialise', 'perspectives', and 'participate'. However, there are numerous lexical and spelling errors throughout the text, such as 'meticulous debate' instead of 'meticulous debate' usage issues, 'o' instead of 'of', 'bequame' or 'became', 'diffeerences', 'ratialism' (presumably meaning racialism or racism), 'perpectives', 'desicions', 'presicely', 'thier', and 'acedemic'. These errors, combined with awkward collocations like 'past stages where they grew', cause noticeable difficulty for the reader and prevent the lexical score from rising higher. The vocabulary range is sufficient to convey basic intent but lacks the precision required for higher bands, resulting in a score of 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response contains a very limited range of grammatical structures, relying heavily on long, convoluted run-on sentences that lack proper punctuation. For instance, the opening sentence is a single, extremely long clause joined by conjunctions. Attempts at complex sentences often result in severe structural faults and agreement errors, such as 'This helps childrens to share...' where 'childrens' is incorrectly pluralised and verb agreement is missed. Other errors include tense inconsistencies ('has now became') and missing prepositions. Frequent grammatical errors impede readability and demonstrate poor control over complex forms, though simple sentence structures are occasionally intelligible. Therefore, a band score of 5.0 is appropriate.

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

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