Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-17

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 6.0)

In nowdays, some people believe that parents ought to motivate their children to participate in group activities and others think that teenagers should spend their spare time doing their own activities. I would like to discuss both views in the upcoming paragraphs before presenting my own opinion.

On the one hand, there are several reasons that youngsters should engage in recreational activities. The most important reason is that it will support today's generation to enhance their interpersonal skills, such as teamwork, cooperation, discipline, trust and so on. To be explained, there are numerous games in which players need to collaborate with each other in order to win the game. For example, football and hockey. In addition to this, in this fast-paced era everyone in involved in their own matters and becoming less social day by day. Group activities are a good chance for teenagers to socialize with their agemates.

On the other hand, people opine that children should occupy themselves independently. Firstly, it will assist youngsters to make their lives easy, because they can make their own decisions according to their choice. There will be no peer pressure or time limit to complete the tasks.

Secondly, it can encourage young ones to be more creative. For intance, children who play by themselves can use their imagination to create different toys with the small help from their parents.

To be concluded, participating in group activities has their own benefits, however advantages of playing alone cannot be overlooked either. In my opinion, children should involve themselves in team-based activities to improve their physical and mental well-being.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both views—organised group activities and independent play—and provides a clear personal opinion in the conclusion. The ideas are relevant and generally supported with reasons and examples, such as mentioning football and hockey for teamwork and creating toys for creativity. However, some of the supporting points are a bit general or lack full extension, placing the response solidly at Band 6. For example, the explanation regarding independent play making lives easier touches on choice and lack of time limits, but these ideas remain somewhat underdeveloped. Nonetheless, the writer maintains a clear position throughout and covers the requirements of the prompt adequately.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph structure, moving logically from an introduction to body paragraphs discussing each view, and concluding with a personal stance. Cohesive devices are employed to signal transitions, such as 'On the one hand', 'In addition to this', and 'On the other hand'. However, some cohesive links and referencing feel slightly mechanical or awkward, such as 'To be explained' and 'To be concluded', which are not standard idiomatic phrases in academic or formal writing. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the contrasting viewpoints, and the progression of ideas is generally easy to follow, making Band 6.0 an accurate reflection of the organizational control demonstrated.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items and phrases such as 'interpersonal skills', 'fast-paced era', 'peer pressure', and 'mental well-being'. However, there are noticeable lexical inaccuracies and awkward collocations throughout the text. For instance, the opening phrase 'In nowdays' contains a spelling error, 'youngsters should engage in recreational activities' is slightly imprecise given the context of group vs. solo play, and 'children who play by themselves can use their imagination to create different toys with the small help from their parents' uses 'small help' instead of 'little help' or 'minimal assistance'. These errors do not impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score to Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing structures like relative clauses ('games in which players need to collaborate') and conditional ideas. There is a reasonable level of control over basic grammar, but several grammatical errors and awkward phrasings persist. Examples include 'everyone in involved' (preposition error for 'involved'), 'participating in group activities has their own benefits' (subject-verb agreement error with 'activities' and 'its'), and 'children should involve themselves' instead of 'children should be involved' or 'should engage'. While these errors occasionally distract the reader, they rarely impede overall comprehension, which aligns well with the descriptors for Band 6.

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

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