Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-10-01

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 the modern times, students tend not to take up science as their major at the university as they used to do some years ago.

In the recent year, a trend has been observed that the students are no more interested in studying science as they did before beucase they think that the scope of science has lessend and the career options based on this are not that much fruitful. It will have long lasting effect on the society.

In the recent years, students' interest in studying science and become doctors or engineers has sharply declined. It is a common perception that being doctor, engineer or scientist is no more worth it. In some countries like Pakistan, there are not enough educational facilities to teach the students at contemporary level and they do not even have any career path in science due to absence of research and development facilities. In 2026, a major quota of medical remained vacant in Pakistan because students believe that after spending 5 million rupees on becoming a doctor, they'll hardly earn 40,000 upon graduation. Therefore, they prefer to go for business or freelancing.

Another reason for not taking science is hard study. Student spends many precious years studying science and can not enjoy the life. Still after stufying for extended hours, they have only the option to become a teacher beucase there is only a handful oppurtunities for professional scientists and they are also on contract basis rather than permanent career. Hence, they go for other options that make them future proof in less time.

I believe that the government should pay attention to this matter and introduce promising careers for scienctists, otherwise we may face shortage of doctors, engineers or researchers in the future, that could cause serious issues for the country's growth.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the causes and the effects on society, fulfilling the requirements for the task. The writer presents a clear position throughout, identifying factors such as perceived low financial returns and challenging study conditions, alongside consequences like a shortage of skilled professionals. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others. For instance, the discussion regarding financial realities in Pakistan provides specific details, whereas the point about career paths being limited to teaching is somewhat generalized and under-developed. To reach a higher level, all main ideas would need to be extended consistently with deeper explanations and more comprehensive examples across the entire essay.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a discernible progression of ideas, moving logically from an introduction to causes, specific examples, and finally concluding with societal effects. Paragraphing is utilised to group related ideas, such as separating the financial aspects in Pakistan from the general difficulty of studying science. Nevertheless, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty. Referencing and transitional links are occasionally basic, and some sentences lack smooth integration, causing the flow to feel slightly disjointed in places. Improving the flexibility and accuracy of cohesive devices and ensuring clearer referencing between sentences would enhance the overall logical flow of the text.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, demonstrating a sufficient range to communicate the main ideas about university majors and career paths. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'contemporary level', 'research and development facilities', and 'future proof'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors that reflect a lack of precision, including 'beucase', 'lessend', 'stufying', 'oppurtunities', and 'scienctists'. While these errors do not seriously impede communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent the lexical score from rising. Greater attention to accurate spelling and natural collocations would strengthen this area significantly.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating structures such as conditional and relative clauses. There are instances of good grammatical control, but errors in grammar and punctuation persist throughout the text. Examples include article omission ('being doctor', 'on contract basis'), subject-verb agreement issues ('a major quota of medical remained'), and awkward prepositions or tense usage ('In the modern times', 'In the recent year'). Although these errors rarely impede overall comprehension and communication, they prevent the text from achieving a higher level of accuracy. A wider variety of error-free complex sentences and more consistent grammatical control are needed for further improvement.

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