Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-10-07

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 5.5)

Education is the basic requirement of every individual and is the essential need of the society. Some people thought that it must be available to everyone but some don,t completely agree with that . However, I strongly agree with the statement because education provide us job opportunities and also education provide us communication skills .

Furthermore, in our society education provide us job opportunities by providing us many skills and basic knowledge about how to live our lives . There are a lot of institutes which gave us live long skills like, computers courses include; wed development , software management and cyber security, likewise; many institutes have courses for plumbers and nurses . For example; on of my friend who recently join the institute of technical sciences tell me that this institute gave us live shaping skills and he is there for a course of cyber security.

On the other hand if we talk about communication skills so there are a lot of universities that groom the up coming engineers, doctors and finance specialist who got a great confidence in there universities to negotiate with people and deal with different situations like any emergency and panic situation. For example in hospitals doctors convince with the patients family by using good communication skills.

In the conclusion it is very important that universities are free for everyone so every individual is able to survive in the society . In this way we are able to groom our community and become a responsible person .

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

Your position is clear in the introduction and conclusion: you strongly support free university education, and you give two relevant reasons—employment opportunities and communication skills. The examples about technical courses and doctors communicating with patients help connect these points to education. However, the response only partly addresses the central issue of whether the government should pay university costs. Most of the discussion explains the benefits of education generally, rather than why public funding is justified or how free access would work. The examples are also brief, and the friend’s account is not developed enough to show the wider impact. To strengthen the response, explain the public benefits of funding, such as a more skilled workforce, and consider a counterargument such as the cost to taxpayers.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, two body paragraphs presenting separate reasons, and a conclusion. The progression from employment skills to communication skills is easy to follow, and signposts such as “Furthermore,” “On the other hand,” and “In the conclusion” show how the sections relate. However, some linking is mechanical, and “On the other hand” suggests a contrast that the paragraph does not actually make. Several ideas within the body paragraphs are joined in long sequences, making the relationship between examples and claims less clear. Referencing is occasionally confusing, particularly in the account of the friend and the institute. Use more precise transitions and organise each paragraph around one claim, followed by explanation and a clearly connected example.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate your main points, including “job opportunities,” “basic knowledge,” “cyber security,” and “communication skills.” There are also attempts at more specific expressions such as “live shaping skills” and “panic situation.” However, the range is limited and several phrases are inaccurate or unnatural, which sometimes makes the intended meaning harder to understand. Examples include “groom the up coming engineers” and “convince with the patients family”; these do not express the intended ideas naturally. Spelling and word-form errors, such as “wed development” and “finance specialist,” also affect precision. Build a bank of accurate collocations for education and public funding, and check spelling and word forms when editing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more extended sentence forms, including clauses introduced by “because” and “who,” and your main ideas can generally be understood. However, the range is limited, and errors occur frequently in verb agreement, tense, articles, plurals, and sentence construction. For example, “education provide us” needs subject–verb agreement, while “one of my friend who recently join” contains errors in both number and verb form. The sentence beginning “Some people thought” also shifts tense unnecessarily. Punctuation and sentence boundaries need attention, especially in the long sentence listing courses. Practise checking each sentence for a clear subject and verb, consistent tense, and correct singular or plural forms; then use a few controlled complex sentences rather than joining many ideas together.

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