Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-21

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people believe that children learn better when they are placed in classes with children of similar academic abilities. Others believe that children learn better when they are in classes with children representing a diverse range of academic abilities.

Discuss both these views and give your opinion

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Few people believe that children get to know things quickly when they are in a class of their peers with equal mental functionaing while some are in the favour that placing kids with peers of different mental abilities would help them to learn things quickly. In this essay, I will discuss both views and finally share my point of view regarding this topic.

First of all, people who are in agreement with the statement that children learn things fastly when they have the same neural and mental abilities of students sitting besides them. They are not wrong as they have other students who are at same learning level, they learn things together at the same time. This trend is quite well adopted in schools and even in colleges now a days where the institutes have separated the different groups of students based on their cognitive abilities, we can say more precisely as based on students marks, and they have made their super sections and average sections. It sometime obviously help in quick learning.

But on the other hand, if students are with other intelligent students who learn things rapidly, they sometimes get fascinated by these students and in that fascination, they would try to learn things quickly like their intelligent peer has done. Instead of separating the slow learners from quick learns, we should make them sit under the same roof.

So, yes both point of views could be accurate but I will definitely support the second one as it induces the sense of competition which is the basis for acadmic progression.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student addresses all parts of the task by discussing both views on academic grouping and clearly stating a personal opinion in the introduction and conclusion. For example, the writer outlines the arguments for homogeneous grouping ('institutes have separated the different groups of students based on their cognitive abilities') and heterogeneous learning ('they sometimes get fascinated by these students'). However, the development of ideas remains somewhat superficial and lacks extended supporting examples or deep exploration. The position is clear throughout, but the reasoning in the body paragraphs is brief. This performance aligns well with Band 6, where all parts are addressed with relevant ideas, though some are under-developed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a concluding stance. The student attempts to use cohesive devices to transition between ideas, such as 'First of all', 'But on the other hand', and 'So, yes'. However, paragraphing is somewhat weak, as the first body paragraph runs on awkwardly with a fragmented sentence structure ('First of all, people who are in agreement with the statement that children learn things fastly... They are not wrong...'). Referencing is occasionally unclear, and logical progression suffers from abrupt transitions and incomplete sentence structures. Cohesion is functional but at times mechanical and faulty, which places this response comfortably at Band 5.5 to 6.0, best represented by a 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items and topic-related terms such as 'cognitive abilities', 'super sections', and 'academic progression'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors, awkward word formations, and non-standard collocations throughout the text. Examples include 'mental functionaing' (functioning), 'fastly' (quickly), 'acadmic' (academic), and 'quick learns' (quick learners). While these errors do not completely impede communication, they recur frequently enough to prevent the student from reaching Band 7. The lexical range is sufficient for the task and satisfies the descriptors for Band 6.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over multi-clause structures as seen in 'In this essay, I will discuss both views and finally share my point of view regarding this topic.' However, the text contains a high frequency of grammatical errors, poor punctuation control, and awkward syntax. For instance, the sentence 'First of all, people who are in agreement with the statement that children learn things fastly when they have the same neural and mental abilities of students sitting besides them.' lacks a main verb and is a sentence fragment. Other errors include subject-verb agreement and incorrect prepositions ('abilities of' instead of 'abilities to'). Because errors cause some difficulty for the reader and accurate complex structures are limited, a Band 5.0 is appropriate.

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

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