Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-16

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some parents send their children to preschool when they are three or four years old. Other parents wait until their children are old enough for primary school before they send them to school.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of sending children to preschool at a young age.
Give reasons for your answer, and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

It is undeniable that, childrens development plays a pivotal role in their life. On that note, number of people believe that sending kids to school before age of 5 is beneficial. when, some deem that it is not the enough age to send them to organisation. However, in the fourthcoming paragraph, i would discuss not only the advantages of this trend, but also the disadvantages.

There are plethora of benefits of sending childrens to nursery at the age of three or four. To begin with, it helps pupil to flourishment of their growth. In other words, childrens start learning to leave without their parents and try to learn new activities and indulge in socializing. For instance, kids at pre primary school start making friends and learn to play new games and all activities so it assist them to their social and mental health. Moreover, this age is best to learn new things and adopt all changes so nursery is the best place to learn for kids. Thus, parents send their pupil to pre school.

On the other side, there are multitudinous drawbacks of this notion. To embark with, it snatch their childhood period. To be more precise, in childhood chilren wants to spend their time with their loved ones instead of new people. For instance, kids are not much comfortable with new people and they do not prefer to go to school. Apart from that, young age kid are not able to do their chores so they always want thie loved ones support. Hence, family do not prefer their child to send them too early at nursery.

To recapitulate, even though there are numerous advantages of this notion such as kids learn new skills and get socialize with new people, I still believe that disvantages such as seperation from family is much more.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of sending young children to preschool. A clear position is stated in the conclusion where the writer weighs the pros and cons and expresses a personal view. However, the ideas are somewhat repetitious and lack full development. For instance, the discussion on advantages mentions that 'kids start learning to leave without their parents and try to learn new activities,' but this is not sufficiently elaborated with deep reasoning or specific real-world examples beyond general statements. Similarly, the disadvantages focus heavily on separation anxiety and missing loved ones without exploring broader developmental or social drawbacks. While the prompt is adequately covered to meet the core requirements, the generalisation of points keeps the response at a Band 6 level for this criterion.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph-by-paragraph structure containing an introduction, body paragraphs for advantages and disadvantages, and a conclusion. However, cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or faulty. Transitions such as 'To embark with' and 'To begin with' are used, but some referencing is unclear, such as the dangling phrase 'when, some deem that it is not the enough age'. Furthermore, paragraphing is attempted, but sentences within paragraphs sometimes lack smooth progression, resulting in choppy transitions between ideas. The use of pronouns and conjunctions to link sentences requires better control to reach higher bands. Overall, the organisation is logical enough to ensure the message is clear, fitting the descriptors for Band 6.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common lexical items such as 'pivotal role,' 'multitudinous drawbacks,' and 'recapitulate.' However, there are frequent word choice errors, awkward collocations, and spelling mistakes throughout the text, including 'childrens,' 'fourthcoming,' 'pupil' used to mean children generally, 'flourishment,' 'leave' instead of 'live,' and 'disvantages.' These errors demonstrate a lack of precision and control over less common vocabulary. While communication is not severely impeded and the reader can easily follow the arguments, the frequency of lexical inaccuracies prevents the score from rising above a Band 5.5 or 6.0, settling appropriately at 5.5 due to the persistent nature of the spelling and word-formation errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures like conditional and concessive clauses (e.g., 'even though there are numerous advantages... I still believe that...'). However, there are frequent grammatical errors in almost every sentence, including missing articles ('before age of 5'), incorrect verb forms ('chilren wants'), subject-verb agreement issues ('young age kid are not able'), and punctuation errors. Punctuation misuse is particularly noticeable, such as unnecessary commas ('when, some deem'). Although the writer attempts complex sentences, they are often faulty, and the high frequency of basic grammatical slips restricts the score. The errors do not completely impede communication, aligning well with the characteristics of a Band 5 performance.

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

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