Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-11-01

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 5.5)

For children to spend time when they are in group or alone in thier leisure time is hotly debated topic. As per my opinion, both the aspects have their own advantages.

Parents always know what is the best for their children. If a child being a part of any group activities such as kindergarten on any sport games where different or same age of children are there, they always learn something new. For example, If a child go to music class where they learn to work on an instument or how to singing, he/she is focusing on how to catch up with everyone and this way they can have more friends which bring activities. Additionally, They develop various skills of collobrating and supporting.On top of that,they never feel depressed because they always have people to share, learn, play and to take care of.

On the other hand, it is important to have personal time for everyone. One needs time to think on personal decisions. Spending leisure time with self can help to think about career and future. It may a type of pause to everything and just think about ownself. Sometimes children can read books, play music or watch something which can help to learn many things alone. Children can work on their hobbies if they also get free time for theirself.

To conclude, it is very important for child to have both type of atmosphere. The group activities always helps them to be more social and personal time helps them to work on theirselves.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both sides of the discussion and give a clear overall view that children benefit from both group activities and time alone. The examples of music classes, making friends, reading, and pursuing hobbies are relevant to the question. However, the two positions are not developed equally: the benefits of group activities receive more explanation, while the value of independent time is stated more generally. The claim that parents “always know what is the best” is also asserted rather than supported, and the conclusion mainly repeats the main points. To strengthen the response, explain more specifically how independent activities build qualities such as self-reliance, and support your opinion with a clearer reason for balancing both.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall arrangement: an introduction, one paragraph for each view, and a conclusion. Transitions such as “On the other hand” and “To conclude” make the progression easy to follow, and the examples generally appear alongside the point they support. This meets the lower-band expectation of coherent organisation and shows some of the flexibility associated with stronger cohesion. However, links within sentences are sometimes awkward or mechanical, and the long group-activities paragraph combines several benefits without a clear sequence. Some references, such as “this way” and “they,” could be more precise. Organise each body paragraph around one main benefit, then explain and illustrate it before moving to the next point.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “group activities,” “leisure time,” “personal time,” “hobbies,” and “collaborating.” However, the range is limited and several noticeable word-choice, spelling, and collocation errors make parts less natural, such as “hotly debated topic,” “work on an instrument,” “bring activities,” and “think about ownself.” There are also misspellings such as “thier,” “instument,” and “collobrating.” These do not prevent the reader from understanding the overall message, but they reduce precision and fluency. Build a more accurate range of phrases for social development and independence, and proofread spelling and word forms carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including conditional and relative structures, and the main meaning is generally understandable. However, errors occur across verb forms, agreement, articles, and sentence construction. For example, “If a child being a part” needs a finite verb, while “If a child go” should use “goes”; “it may a type of pause” is missing a verb, and “The group activities always helps” has a subject–verb agreement error. Some sentences also contain several clauses joined awkwardly, which makes them harder to process. Practise forming accurate conditional sentences and checking each sentence for a complete verb and agreement. Greater control of these patterns would make your ideas clearer.

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