Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-10-04

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)

In modern era school startup at age three or four has become increasingly common. While this approach offers numerous benefits, it also presents certain drawback. In this essay I will be discussing the advantages and disadvantages of both mindsets of parents.

one of the primary advantage of preschool is that social growth, early learning and routine adaptation. This plays a huge role is child social skills and development. This also leads to a very structured routine. For example a child who starts preschool at age 3 or 4 has shared his toys , take turns and good in academics like color and numbers recognition. Hence preschool is significant for child overall growth.

Despite these benefits, there are notable disadvantages. one major drawback is that separation anxiety, loss of family time and Risk of Over-Academic Pressure. Many young children may feel stressed or sad when away from their parents for many hours. Moreover, Some programs push formal academics too early, which can cause frustration instead of a love for learning. For example, kids may feel overwhelmed during school drop off , it may cause over crying , clinging to parents clothes and not able to focus on studies. Therefore, parents wait till the children are old enough or stable for primary school.

In conclusion, Although preschool at age 3 or 4 has several advantages . This can lead to child overall good upbringing but its disadvantages such an separation anxiety, risk of over academic pressure or others factors must be considered before forming a final opinion.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of sending children to preschool at a young age, thereby fulfilling the prompt requirements. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and uneven across the paragraphs. For instance, the second paragraph lists several advantages such as 'social growth, early learning and routine adaptation' in a rushed manner without fully extending or substantiating each point with detailed explanations. Similarly, the conclusion mentions general upbringing and other factors rather than synthesizing the arguments cohesively. While a clear position is established, the ideas remain somewhat superficial, placing the task response securely at this level where parts of the prompt are addressed, but some points lack sufficient depth.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt to structure the content into logical paragraphs, featuring an introduction, body paragraphs for advantages and disadvantages, and a conclusion. The student uses basic cohesive devices such as 'While this approach', 'Despite these benefits', and 'In conclusion' to signal shifts in the argument. However, referencing and progression are sometimes faulty. For instance, the listing style in the second paragraph lacks smooth internal transitions, and the sentence 'This plays a huge role is child social skills' disrupts the logical flow. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to separate the contrasting viewpoints, yet the mechanical application of cohesive markers prevents the response from achieving a higher band.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is minimally adequate for the task, providing enough range to discuss the topic of preschool education. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'separation anxiety', 'routine adaptation', and 'over-academic pressure', which shows an effort to engage with the subject matter. However, there are noticeable lexical errors, incorrect word forms, and collocation slips throughout the text. Examples include 'school startup' instead of starting school, 'drawback' instead of drawbacks, 'child social skills' instead of children's social skills, and 'over crying'. These errors occasionally cause mild difficulty for the reader, though communication remains generally clear, reflecting a limited yet functional vocabulary range.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writing relies heavily on a limited range of simple and basic complex sentence structures, many of which contain frequent grammatical errors. There are notable issues with article usage, subject-verb agreement, and prepositions within grammatical patterns, such as in 'In modern era school startup at age three', 'a child... has shared his toys, take turns and good in academics', and 'parents wait till the children are old enough or stable'. Furthermore, punctuation errors are present, including comma splices and fragment sentences like 'one of the primary advantage of preschool is that...'. Attempts at complex structures are often faulty, and the high frequency of basic structural errors requires the reader to decode the meaning, keeping the grammatical score constrained.

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