Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-13

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people feel that the government should pay the costs of running universities so that a university education will be free for anyone who wants it.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

Give reasons for your answer, and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 4.5)

According to my point of view , the educational expenses should not be charged to the students because if someone is really have specific and nourishing skills and the potential to perform extraordinary innovations in the society and wanted to make the environment more upgraded so one must be given a chance to bloom there. For example , mostly students in universities have skills to carry on the new and adventurous stuffs but in every semester beginning they have this concern how would they pay their semester dues and in this alarming and tensed condition mostly students start part time jobs that give meet the expenses of university to some extent but not entirely, and in this attention catching distraction ,pals can't focus on the course work and also do not have time to attend the classes . The results of skipping classes is that they can not cope with other regular student and eventually they fail the classes or got worse results . This same thing happened to one of my friends and he has financially problems like staying in hostels and paying the expenses of living in university and also having mental easeness with friends also need money and he always remained stressed and overthinking about the expenses although there were not much costly but still for a middle class boy it could be so difficult to manage all the things together . Therefore , by keeping this in view the university dues must be zero or bare minimum.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear stance that university education should be free or have minimal costs. However, the development of ideas is limited and relies on a single, extended personal anecdote about a friend rather than a well-rounded exploration of societal, economic, or governmental perspectives. The argument tends to wander into repetitive descriptions of stress and financial pressure rather than fully extending the wider implications of free tuition. Under the band descriptors, this falls into Band 5, as the ideas are under-developed and the response lacks sufficient breadth of argument to reach a higher band.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0

The entire response is written as one single, extremely long paragraph, which severely impacts paragraphing and visual organization. There is a lack of logical division between the introduction, body arguments, and conclusion. While some basic cohesive devices are used, such as 'For example' and 'Therefore', the lack of paragraphs makes the progression difficult to follow. Moreover, sentences are run-on and overly long without appropriate punctuation pauses, leading to mechanical referencing and confusing flow. This performance aligns with Band 4 descriptors.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is basic and repetitive, with noticeable errors in word choice and collocation that occasionally strain the reader. Examples include phrases like 'educational expenses should not be charged to the students', 'making the environment more upgraded', and 'adventurous stuffs'. The writer attempts some less common phrasing, such as 'nourishing skills' and 'attention catching distraction', but these are unnatural and inaccurate. The range is limited and minimally adequate for the task, fitting the Band 5 criteria.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.0

The text demonstrates a very limited range of structures, consisting predominantly of extremely long, convoluted run-on sentences connected by coordinating conjunctions like 'and'. There is an almost complete absence of effective punctuation, leading to massive sentence boundary errors. Grammatical errors are frequent, including subject-verb agreement issues ('someone is really have'), tense inconsistencies ('pals can't focus', 'he has financially problems'), and awkward phrasing ('got worse results'). These errors cause significant difficulty for the reader and reflect a Band 4 level of grammatical accuracy and control.

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

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