Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 14 · 2026-11-02

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people think it's better to choose friends who always have the same opinions as them. Other people believe it's good to have friends who sometimes disagree with them.

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)

Some people believe that people should make friends who have same viewpoints as they have. However, others think it is beneficial to have friends who think in different ways. In my opinion, surrounding with people who have different opnions is advatagous in many ways.

The major benefit of having friends with same mindset is that it helps to make a stronger relationship . Due to same think, there are minimum chances of arguemts or disputes among friends and they have good support to each other. Therefore, having no competition and sense of jelousey with friends raise a healthy bond.

While, people can improve their knowledge if they have friends who present different opinions and disagree with them sometimes.Everyone can has different knowledge about specific field that can be accurate or not, but people speak according to their expouser that can be different to other person. For example, if some people have a brief about something or wrong others can help them to teach or try to correct their at some point.

Finally, in my perspective, although disagreements with freinds may cause a dispute, but help in personal growth. if people want to learn new skills, explore new ideas, and behavoiur they should have friends who have variety of opinions. Consequently, it improves their way of thinking and get to know other side of the line as well.

To conclude, friends with same abilities can helps to create a peaceful friend zone, while friends who have diverse opinios sometimes may end up with a confilt, but helps develop different ways of thinking and improve knowledge.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both views and state a clear preference for friends with different opinions, particularly in the introduction and conclusion. The discussion of shared viewpoints gives a relevant reason—fewer disputes and stronger support—while the opposing view is linked to learning and personal growth. These ideas answer the question, but some are not fully explained: for instance, the claim that having no competition or jealousy creates a healthy bond is asserted rather than illustrated, and the example about correcting someone’s understanding remains vague. To strengthen the response, develop each reason with a specific, relevant example and explain how it supports your position.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The essay has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two views, your opinion, and a conclusion. The progression from the benefits of agreement to the value of disagreement is easy to follow, and linking expressions such as “However,” “For example,” and “To conclude” help guide the reader. This shows coherent organisation and some effective progression. At times, though, connections are mechanical or unclear. “While” begins a paragraph without a clear contrastive structure, and “Finally” introduces your opinion after it has already been stated in the introduction. Use transitions that express the precise relationship between ideas, and make references such as “they” or “it” clearly point to a specific idea.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “viewpoints,” “mindset,” “disputes,” “personal growth,” and “variety of opinions.” This gives you enough language to communicate the main ideas, but the range is limited and several noticeable spelling and word-choice errors make parts less clear. Examples include “opnions,” “arguemts,” “jelousey,” “expouser,” and “confilt.” Some combinations are also unnatural, such as “same abilities” for friends with similar opinions and “brief about something” for having knowledge of a subject. Build accuracy by checking spelling and learning common collocations, especially for discussing agreement, disagreement, and learning.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentences, including a conditional structure in “if people want to learn new skills…” and a contrastive clause beginning “although disagreements…”. However, control is inconsistent, and errors in sentence structure, verb forms, agreement, and punctuation sometimes make the meaning harder to follow. For example, “Everyone can has” should use the base verb after “can,” and “friends who have same viewpoints” needs an article before “same.” The sentence beginning “Finally” also joins “although” and “but” in a way that makes the clause structure faulty. Practise checking one sentence at a time for complete clauses, correct verb forms, and appropriate punctuation.

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.