Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-08-13

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)

There is an ongoing debate about students nowday choose to study other subject like business, accounting, computer science, or arts instead of science in university, is a positive or negative development. While other argue this lead to negative consequence such as lack of innovation, medical, and technological breakthrough stalls and weakens, I believe this development was largely negative for society and country, and this essay will explain why.

Firstly, students nowday tend to avoid choosing science subject in university mostly because lack of confidence in schools. Students often drop out of the science stream because they view the subjects as too hard rather than lacking initial curiosity. For example, students afraid they will not graduate from the university because the science subjects like biology, chemistry, physics, or biotechnology are signficantly harder compare to subjects like business, accounting, data analysis or computer science. In addition, career pay gap is one the biggest reason, student tend to avoid science courses in university. Usually the starting salaries and remuneration for pure scienctist are often much lower compare to others and this pay gap push the graduate toward corporate,financial or tech fields.

Secondly, the effects of lack of scientist or researcher come with negative major consequence. Lack of scienctist mean lack and stall innovations for whole society and this cause newer technologies and consumer products take much longer to develop and often need to depend on foreign import or technologies from other countries. This will further dec

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The essay addresses both parts of the prompt (causes and effects), but the development is incomplete. The response ends abruptly mid-sentence ('This will further dec'), which significantly impacts the task completion. While the position is clear, the lack of a conclusion and the unfinished final paragraph mean that the second part of the prompt is not fully addressed. Furthermore, the word count is below the 250-word minimum, which is a penalty factor. To improve, ensure you allocate enough time to complete your final paragraph and proofread for length requirements.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay uses basic paragraphing and some cohesive devices like 'Firstly' and 'In addition' to organize ideas. However, the logical flow is interrupted by the incomplete ending. Referencing is sometimes unclear, such as in the opening sentence where the structure is fragmented ('is a positive or negative development'). The progression of ideas is logical up until the point the text cuts off, but the lack of a concluding summary prevents the essay from achieving a higher level of coherence. Using a wider variety of linking words and ensuring a clear, finished structure would improve this score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks precision and variety. There are several spelling errors ('nowday', 'scienctist', 'signficantly') and some awkward collocations ('lack of confidence in schools', 'career pay gap'). The range is sufficient to convey the main points, but it does not demonstrate the flexibility required for higher bands. To improve, focus on using more academic collocations and ensure accurate spelling of key terms related to the topic, such as 'scientists' and 'significantly'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede clarity. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('students nowday choose') and missing articles ('lack of scientist'). The sentence structure in the introduction is particularly problematic, as it is a run-on sentence that lacks a clear subject. While the meaning is generally understandable, the frequency of errors in basic grammar and punctuation prevents a higher score. Focusing on sentence boundary control and subject-verb agreement will be beneficial.

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