Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-09-27

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, more and more students in numerous nations dont want to apply for science as a compulsory subject. This phenomenon is caused by some factors and it could result in various negative consequences.

The lack of students choosing science subjects is attributed to a multitude of reasons. Firstly, science knowledge cannot be suitable for all kind of learners. In fact, these courses require a wide range of understanding and logical thinking from students. It is reasonable that it has difficulty in attracting students attention as a result because they frequently apply for courses based on their strenths and abilities. For instance, subject choosers may be influnced by their friends, hot influencers and even the labor market. Additionally, it is undeniable that studying science subjects may be longer than others. Scientists need to spend the majority of their time studying and doing scientific research in the labortatory.

There are a host of problems caused by this tendency. One of them is maintaining the scientific education system. The responsibilty of training new researchers belongs to the university of science, however, the concentration of students decrease gradually under the demonstration of several social elements. Therefore, they will not exist unless they launch a recruitment campaingn in order to receice students applications for the next few years.

In conclusionm, the shortage of students choosing science subjects is due to studnts ability and time of studying and this issue could lead to a great deal of serious problems

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The response addresses both parts of the prompt, discussing the causes of the shortage of science students and the resulting societal effects, such as the struggle to maintain university science education systems. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and occasionally unclear, as seen in vague phrasing like "several social elements." Additionally, the Length Check confirms the response contains 245 words, which falls slightly short of the required 250-word minimum. This minor negative constraint penalty, combined with the under-development of certain points, pulls the task achievement score down into the lower-middle range. A band score of 5.0 reflects a partially addressed task with limited and under-developed ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay displays a logical overall structure with clear paragraphing, dividing the introduction, causes, effects, and a brief conclusion. Cohesive devices are utilized, such as "Firstly," "Additionally," and "One of them," though their usage can sometimes feel mechanical or repetitive. Referencing is occasionally unclear, as seen in the transition from discussing universities to "they will not exist," where the pronoun antecedent is slightly ambiguous. Furthermore, there are minor cohesion issues within sentences. Overall, there is a coherent arrangement of ideas, but the execution of cohesive elements places it firmly at band 6.0.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student attempts some less common vocabulary, such as "phenomenon," "multitude of reasons," and "recruitment campaign," demonstrating an adequate range for the task. However, there are notable spelling errors ("dont", "strenths", "influnced", "labortatory", "receice", "studnts", and "in conclusionm") and occasional awkward word choices or collocations, such as "science knowledge cannot be suitable for all kind of learners." These errors do not entirely impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score. Therefore, the vocabulary aligns with band 5.5, showing a minimally adequate range with noticeable technical slips.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and conditional structures. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are missing apostrophes for contractions ("dont"), subject-verb agreement errors ("the concentration of students decrease"), and awkward syntactic phrasing like "it has difficulty in attracting students attention as a result because they frequently apply..." Punctuation is generally functional, but overall, the frequency of grammatical and mechanical errors impacts readability. This performance is characteristic of a band 5.0, where a limited range of structures contains frequent errors.

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.