Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-22

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)

The two pie charts illustrate the percentage of British students who could speak languages other than English in 2000 and 2010.

Overall, the proportion of students who spoke no other language increased, while the percentage of those who spoke Spanish only saw a significant decline. French only also decreased over the period.

In 2000, 30% of British students spoke no other language. This was followed by 20% who spoke Spanish only, making it the most popular foreign language. 15% spoke French only and another 15% spoke another language. German only and two other languages both accounted for 10% each.

A decade later in 2010, the percentage of students with no other language rose to 35%, remaining the largest category. In contrast, the proportion of Spanish only speakers halved to 10%. Similarly, French only speakers dropped to 10%. German only remained stable at 10%. Interestingly, the figures for students speaking another language and two other languages both increased, to 20% and 15% respectively.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 3.0

The candidate has completely misunderstood the prompt. The task requires writing an essay discussing the advantages and disadvantages of sending children to preschool at a young age, based on the general training task 2 prompt. Instead, the student has written a Task 1 Academic report describing two pie charts about British students speaking foreign languages. Furthermore, the response contains only 162 words, severely failing the 250-word minimum requirement. Consequently, the task has not been addressed appropriately, resulting in a low band score.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

Despite the severe task irrelevance, the writing demonstrates a logical structure typical of an IELTS Task 1 report. The text is divided into sensible paragraphs, including an introduction, an overview, and detailed body paragraphs. Cohesive devices such as 'Overall', 'In 2000', and 'A decade later' are used appropriately to guide the reader through the data points. Paragraphing is sufficient and appropriate, and referencing is clear throughout the text, showing a coherent arrangement of the provided information.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is reasonably adequate for describing statistical data and charts. The writer employs appropriate phrases such as 'proportion of students', 'saw a significant decline', 'remaining the largest category', and 'halved to 10%'. While the lexical range is somewhat limited and tailored to a completely different task type, the word choices are generally accurate and effectively communicate the data trends without impeding comprehension.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 7.0

The response displays a satisfactory mix of simple and complex sentence forms. The writer successfully uses past tense structures to report historical survey data, such as '30% of British students spoke no other language' and 'the figures for students... both increased'. There are very few grammatical errors, and punctuation is handled well throughout the text. The majority of the sentences are grammatically accurate and well-constructed.

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

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