Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-09-20

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)

Education is very important and everyone has a right to be well educated.Science is a very interesting subject.It has a lots of opportunity and there are many fields in science that are very helpful to the living beings.

in many countries many students dont prefer to study science at university and there are many causes for this.We all know about AI and how it is very useful for us ,many students think that studing science now won't help them in buildibg their career path and hence they end up choosing a subject completely different from science lie computers .

While other students think that studing any field in science requires a lot of expenses.In India the a student has very less options of career,it should be science or engineering .if the student chooses science the only career option left to them is medicine .Due to this the student has zero idea about how vast the field if science is and they end up selecting medicine

There can be a lots of effects of this on the society as we would have a decline in the quantities if doctors.Many career paths of science will be vacant and every one would keep rushing to other career paths where there will be very less opportunities .Talking about the basic science path of medicine the hospital bills will be very high due to less availabilty of doctors.

Science is a beautifull and a very vast subject and there are many interesting paths in it .

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt, discussing causes such as financial costs, career misconceptions regarding AI, and limited career options in India, alongside effects like a decline in doctors and higher hospital bills. However, the development of these ideas remains somewhat limited and under-developed. For instance, the transition from AI to career choice is slightly confused, as computers are referred to as 'completely different from science lie computers' despite computer science being a technical field. The explanation of the Indian context regarding medicine is somewhat generalized and repetitive. While the student does address the main prompt requirements, the arguments would benefit from greater extension and clearer logical links. Consequently, this performance aligns best with the Band 6 descriptors, as all parts are addressed but some areas lack sufficient depth and clarity.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The essay displays a basic structural arrangement, attempting to introduce the topic, discuss causes and effects, and conclude. However, paragraphing is poorly managed and unconventional, with sudden transitions and a lack of clear separation between ideas. For example, the second paragraph awkwardly merges AI, career progression, and university choices without clear demarcation, and the third paragraph abruptly jumps into financial costs and the Indian education context. Cohesive devices are minimal and sometimes mechanical, with run-on sentences and punctuation issues (such as missing spaces after periods, e.g., 'subject.It has' and 'living beings.in many countries'). Referencing is occasionally unclear, hindering smooth progression. These organizational flaws place the response firmly at Band 5, as there is an underlying structure and some progression of ideas, but cohesion and paragraphing are noticeably inadequate.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is generally adequate for the task, allowing the writer to convey basic ideas about education, careers, and society, fitting the Band 6 profile. The student attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'opportunity', 'expenses', 'availability', and 'decline', but these are accompanied by noticeable inaccuracies and spelling errors (e.g., 'buildibg' instead of building, 'beautifull', 'availabilty', 'studing'). Word choice and collocation are sometimes awkward, such as 'don't prefer to study' or describing computers as completely different from science. While the vocabulary is minimally sufficient to communicate the central message, the frequent spelling slips and occasional lexical inaccuracies prevent the writing from achieving a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student utilizes a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting complex structures through conditional clauses and relative clauses (e.g., 'While other students think that studying any field in science requires a lot of expenses' and 'if the student chooses science the only career option left to them is medicine'). However, grammar and punctuation control is weak, with frequent errors that cause noticeable difficulty for the reader. There are persistent issues with capitalization (starting sentences or names with lowercase letters like 'in many countries'), missing spaces after punctuation marks, subject-verb agreement errors ('a student has very less options', 'there are a lots'), and spelling of grammatical forms ('studing'). Because attempts at complex sentences are frequently faulty and errors recur throughout, the response meets the Band 5 descriptors.

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

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