Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-09-16

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)

With vast amount of languages, English has become a comman language for communicating. By today, huge number of students tend to study independently rather than taking assistance, making it difficult for them. I highly agree with the factor that self studying English is difficult.

Firstly, English is now used around every conner of the earth. It is significant for learner's to learn English and become independent speaker. The best way of learning the English languge is by taking assistance from someone fluent in it, because those who have mastered the language can guide the other person better as the person is aware of the languge's main points. They can provided with cheat codes and techniques for learning English something a person independently studying can not access to. For instance, if a student is stuck with grammer issue, a teacher can assist the student and help the learner improve. In addition, learning a language requires a learner to communicate, because if a student does not communicate with someone who is an indepented user of English; the student finds it difficult to make progress.

The Language English itself consist of many rules in grammer making it tricky to understand also in pronounciation, there are many words that are quiet similar to each other in sounds. A comman case that we can take from life is, usally when we try to learn a new word, we find that it is used in many different ways, hence it becomes quite difficult to understand but with assistance it becomes easier to understand. Moreover, students learning a language is confusing and a formal course removes all the confusion.

Overall, I believe that a learner should not self-study the language English. The student should take some assistance which can result into significant improvement in their learning.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses the prompt directly, establishing a clear position of strong agreement with the statement that self-studying English without a teacher is difficult. The student provides relevant ideas, such as the need for guidance with grammar rules, pronunciation nuances, and conversational practice. However, these ideas are somewhat repetitive and lack deeper extension or concrete real-world examples beyond general assertions. For instance, mentioning that a teacher can provide cheat codes is a relevant point, but it remains under-developed. While all parts of the prompt are addressed, the overall development leans towards over-generalisation rather than thorough analysis, aligning well with the Band 6 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, moving from an introduction to supporting body paragraphs and a concluding summary. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical and referencing is occasionally unclear. For example, in the second paragraph, phrases like 'because those who have mastered the language can guide the other person better as the person is aware of the languge's main points' create awkward phrasing and repetitive referencing. Cohesive devices are used, but their application lacks smooth flexibility. Paragraphing is adequate, but internal transitions between sentences within the body paragraphs occasionally disrupt the logical flow, placing this text firmly in the Band 6 category.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student displays an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common words and phrases such as 'independently', 'fluent', and 'pronunciation'. However, there are frequent spelling errors and word choice inaccuracies throughout the text, including 'comman' instead of common, 'conner' instead of corner, 'learner's' instead of learners, 'languge's' instead of language's, 'provided' instead of provide, 'grammer' instead of grammar, 'quiet' instead of quite, and 'indepented' instead of independent. While these lexical errors do not completely impede communication, their frequency prevents the response from achieving a higher band score, making Band 5.0 the most appropriate fit.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as conditional structures ('if a student is stuck... a teacher can assist') and relative clauses. However, there are frequent grammatical errors and punctuation issues throughout the response. Examples include subject-verb agreement problems ('students learning a language is confusing'), missing articles ('with vast amount of languages'), and awkward preposition usage ('study independently rather than taking assistance'). Although these errors do not obscure the general meaning of the text, they occur with enough frequency to restrict the grammatical score to Band 5.0.

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

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