Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-10-28

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 in many countries an insufficient number of student are deciding to study science at university. I believe that students may find science stream difficult and it may affect society in future in technological fields. This essay will discuss in detailed about this topic in following paragraphs.

One of main reason to not decide to study in science stream is that many youngsters find this very difficult to study. For example, science study have so many area of study such as physics, chemistry and biology and the subjects like physics required knowledge about mathematics that is also one of tough subject. All this subjects required a good amount of concentration and lot of time to study but most the student don't want to do that, so they decide easy stream to study in university as compare to science. As a result, science studies in university facing lack of students.

Furthermore, society may get affected by this in future, because specific field such as medical, pharmacy and engineer only student who studied science can do work. For example, in recent year many hospitals are not getting well qualified doctors similar in engineering field many companies are facing problem well qualified engineers. Consequently, in coming year we may face lack of individuals who studied science and may many sectors such as engineering and medical may collapse due to this.

In conclusion, although an insufficient number of students taking admission to science field, I strongly believe that the reason behind it was the difficulty of that subject and society may face problems in future likes lack of eligible candidates in fields like medical and engineering were science is must required subject.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both parts of the question: you identify perceived difficulty as a cause and explain possible effects through shortages of doctors and engineers. Your position is clear, and the examples of hospitals and engineering companies help make the consequences relevant. However, the cause is developed more fully than the effects, which are mainly presented as a future shortage and possible collapse of sectors. Explain more specifically how these shortages would affect society—for example, through reduced access to healthcare or delays in infrastructure and innovation. The claim that students choose an “easy stream” could also be qualified or supported with another cause, such as career prospects or the cost and length of science training. This would make the response more fully developed.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for the cause and effects, and a conclusion. The progression from students finding science difficult to potential workforce shortages is easy to follow, and linking phrases such as “For example,” “Furthermore,” and “Consequently” help signal relationships between ideas. This meets the lower-band expectation of coherent organisation and also shows some flexibility in connecting examples to claims. To strengthen progression further, make the links between sentences more precise and avoid repeating the same point in the conclusion. For instance, the final paragraph could synthesise the cause and its social consequences rather than restating them. Some references, such as “this” and “that subject,” could also identify their meaning more clearly.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “science stream,” “concentration,” “well qualified doctors,” and “engineering field.” However, the range is limited and several noticeable word-choice or collocation problems make the writing less natural, such as “science study,” “easy stream,” “society may get affected,” and “may many sectors … collapse.” Some expressions are repeated, particularly references to science, students, and future shortages. Aim to use more precise academic phrasing and check how words combine: for example, describe students as “choosing a degree programme,” and say that society may “face a shortage” rather than “get affected.” More varied, accurate vocabulary would improve clarity and reduce the effort required of the reader.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including a conditional idea in “society may get affected … because” and a relative clause in “the subjects like physics required knowledge about mathematics.” The overall meaning is generally recoverable, but errors in agreement, articles, plurals, and verb forms occur throughout and sometimes make sentences difficult to process. Examples include “an insufficient number of student are,” “science study have,” and “All this subjects required.” There are also awkwardly constructed sentences, such as “may many sectors … may collapse,” where the word order and clause structure need revision. Practise checking each sentence for a clear subject and verb, then verify singular/plural agreement and article use. Greater control of these patterns would make your complex sentences more reliable.

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

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