Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-09-13

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

A huge number of students choose to study English independently on a self- study basis rather than attend a formal course. However, without the assistance of a teacher, students often find it difficult to manage their studies.

To what extent do you agree or disagree ?

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Nowadays, their has been a trend of studying english by self assessment and by self guidance among students and they prefer to avoid involvement of any kind of teacher or tutor in there biased approach. There are several supportive arguments that make this method suitable and appropriate, as students can find more productive and helpful way to get exposure to english than there tutors or education system can provide. In my view, to some extend this method creates a positive impact on students.

There are several limitations of education system which are making english less entertaining for students, and most importantly they do not enjoy studying language. These limitations include factors such as, method of teaching, how much enjoyable it is for learners, varying understanding capacities of students. As a result, developing there own biased method od studying english is a consequence of this situation. Furthermore, exposure to several other methods also encourages students to take there own approach including learning from movies and TV shows, reading books, listening to music, and many more.

However, there are several demerits of this method which are significant enough to be undermined, as they create a negative impact on there overall development of language due to misinformation and exposure to very complex form of english and different accents which they can not understand easily. Moreover, this approach completely undermines the importance of grammer and vocabulary, creating a negative impact on development of skills.

Therefore, it can be concluded that, considering self-studying in biased manner for learning language rather than studying from a professional tutor or teacher without guidance might seem an appropriate approach in first glance, as it ensures that it can be useful according to individual needs and requirements, but it lacks the real constructive factors such as using appropriate grammer and exposure vast range of vocabulary, which are essential for individual's language development.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student addresses all parts of the task, expressing a clear position that self-studying English can be positive to some extent, but ultimately lacks essential constructive elements such as proper grammar and vocabulary range. The ideas are relevant and supported by general explanations regarding educational limitations and alternative learning methods. However, some arguments lack deep development, tending to generalize the flaws of self-study rather than providing detailed examples from personal experience or broader knowledge. While the writer covers the prompt adequately, the reasoning could be more fully elaborated to reach a higher band. Therefore, the response aligns best with the criteria for Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The text presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a concluding statement. Ideas are logically sequenced, moving from the benefits of self-study to its limitations and a final conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct points of the argument. However, cohesion is at times mechanical or faulty, seen in repetitive transitions and referencing issues, such as 'there' instead of 'their' or 'they', which occasionally obscures the logical flow between sentences. Additionally, some cohesive devices are overused or imprecise. These features place the response securely within the Band 6 descriptor range for Coherence and Cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common phrases such as 'biased approach,' 'productive and helpful way,' and 'overall development of language.' However, there are frequent errors in word choice, spelling, and word forms, such as repeatedly writing 'there' instead of 'their,' 'grammer' instead of 'grammar,' and using 'biased manner' inappropriately. These lexical inaccuracies and persistent spelling errors occasionally impede communication and restrict the vocabulary score. While the writer attempts to convey complex ideas, the execution shows limitations in precision and control, making Band 5.0 the most accurate reflection of the lexical performance.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting longer multi-clause sentences like 'There are several supportive arguments that make this method suitable and appropriate, as students can find more productive...'. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, marred by frequent errors in basic and complex structures alike. These include pronoun-antecedent confusion, incorrect verb forms ('their has been'), missing prepositions, and numerous punctuation and spelling slips. Although the meaning is usually retrievable despite these errors, the high frequency of grammatical lapses prevents the response from achieving a Band 6, placing it firmly at Band 5.0.

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

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