Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-11-06

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In many countries not enough students are choosing to study science at university. What are the causes of this? What effects does it have on society?

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

In recent years, many countries all around the world are unable to control students choosing other subjects over science at university. Is increasingly becoming common. There are several reasons beside this trend and i believe that it is a negative development and has a huge impacts in the society.

On the one hand, there are several factors why students are not prefering to study science. The primary reason is that due to higher competition which directly posses negative impacts on both mental and physical health of the students. For instance, my friend abhi was quite good in science during school days, he had a great ambition to become a poupular scientist in future so he used to study all night with no sleep. nevertheless, one day he suffered from nervous breakdown and collasped on the ground and still he is not getting out from this trauma which impacted his overall career. Another reason students donot choose science at university is due to fear of being faliure.

On the other hand, it also creates negative impacts to the society beacuse if least number of students study science at university looking forward in the future, we might not see other popular scientists to forecast global pandemics or any other aspects that posses threats to the society. For example, scientists found the crucial reason how corona viruses was spread into the human society, they later on found the vaccine after doing a lot of experiments over this viruse to protect the human life.

In conclusion, students had a good reasons not to study science at university because of the several physical and mental health problems but i believe that this is a negative development to the society, incase of any global pandemics with the limited scientists it is difficult to identify and address the problems which can impact society drastically.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both parts of the question and make your position clear: you regard the trend as negative. The explanation that competition and fear of failure discourage students from science is relevant, and the example of your friend illustrates the pressure involved. You also explain a societal consequence through the shortage of scientists able to respond to pandemics, supported by the coronavirus example. However, the causes are not developed equally: fear of failure is mentioned but not explained, and the link between competition and students choosing other subjects could be made more explicit. The societal discussion focuses almost entirely on pandemics. Develop a wider range of consequences and explain each cause more fully to make the response more complete and convincing.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, a paragraph on causes, one on societal effects, and a conclusion. Signposting such as “On the one hand,” “On the other hand,” and “In conclusion” helps readers follow the main stages. Within paragraphs, however, progression is sometimes uneven. The long personal example takes up much of the causes paragraph, while the second cause receives only a brief mention. Some links are also mechanical or unclear, such as “Another reason … is due to fear,” and the opening “Is increasingly becoming common” is disconnected from the preceding sentence. Use clearer links between claims and evidence, and balance paragraph development so each main point is easy to follow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “higher competition,” “mental and physical health,” “global pandemics,” and “vaccine.” There are also attempts at more specific expressions, such as “nervous breakdown” and “forecast global pandemics.” However, inaccurate word choice, collocation, and spelling are noticeable and sometimes make the writing less natural: “possess negative impacts” is awkward, “fear of being failure” is not idiomatic, and “corona viruses” and “viruse” are misspelled or incorrectly formed. Repetition of “negative impacts” and “society” also limits flexibility. Build accuracy with common academic collocations and check spelling and word forms carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including clauses introduced by “because” and “which,” and the main message is generally understandable. However, errors in sentence construction and agreement recur. The opening has a fragment: “Is increasingly becoming common,” while “students are not prefering” uses an incorrect verb form. In “it also creates negative impacts … because if least number of students study,” the conditional structure and article use are faulty, and “a good reasons” has a number-agreement error. Some sentences are also overloaded, particularly the personal example, making relationships between clauses harder to follow. Practise forming complete sentences, checking subject–verb agreement and articles, and dividing long sentences into clearer units.

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