Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-09-19
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)
Education is the important part of students' life. However, some pupils join courses to learn new language whereas some prefer self study. There has been considerable debate on this issue whether it has positive development and negative development. In this essay, I will discuss both views and give my own opinion in forthcoming paragraphs.
It is strongly believe that the to learn something new students need a mentor to guide them. Moreover, teachers have many tricks that the help students to learn. Apart from this, mentors have different and excellent methods with they explain complex topic into simple way. To be more precise, it helps scholars to learn easily and they remember it for a long time. A survey conducted by a prestigious newspaper of Britain show that the scholars who learn with the help of teacher are more successful.
As well as, some individuals think that the self study plays indespensable role in child's learning. Self study helps to enhance the knowledge of student. Moreover, it wides their mental horizon. In addition, puilps learn to solve their own problems. Furthermore, learners have flexible time to learn. They plan their schudule according to their requirement.
In my opinion, pupils need a mentor to learn something new. For instance, a learner who do their study with the help of teacher got more beneficial results because self-study students study when they have motivation. Whereas the scholars who learn with the help of teacher study regularly as they have fear of punishment.
Different people have different notions regarding this statement but I have sound reasons to advocate that although self -study is crucialyet scholars need a mentor to learn easily.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses the prompt by discussing whether students need teacher assistance or can study independently, taking a clear stance in favour of teachers. However, the student misinterprets the prompt's essay type by stating in the introduction, 'In this essay, I will discuss both views and give my own opinion', which reflects a 'discuss both views' template rather than a direct 'To what extent do you agree or disagree?' format. Despite this formulaic framing, the body paragraphs do successfully present arguments and examples supporting the writer's view. Ideas are generally relevant, such as the benefits of teacher guidance and flexible time management for self-study, though some points remain somewhat general and under-developed. Because the student addresses the prompt and maintains a clear position, this aligns well with the Band 6 descriptors.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement and logical paragraphing, with an introduction, body paragraphs addressing different aspects, and a clear conclusion. Cohesive devices are used throughout, such as 'Moreover', 'Apart from this', and 'Furthermore', but their application is at times mechanical or repetitive. For instance, referencing is occasionally imprecise, and logical links between sentences can feel abrupt. Paragraph transitions are somewhat formulaic, such as using 'As well as,' to start the third paragraph, which is grammatically awkward. Overall, the structure is easy to follow, but the execution of cohesion places it firmly at Band 6.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'indispensable role', 'mental horizon', and 'prestigious'. However, there are notable word-choice and collocation errors throughout the text, including spelling mistakes like 'indespensable' and 'schudule', as well as awkward phrasing such as 'The to learn something new' and 'do their study'. Grammatical forms of words are also sometimes confused, as seen with 'puilps' and 'beneficial results' where 'better outcomes' would be more natural. These errors do not impede overall communication, but they occur with enough frequency to prevent the essay from reaching a higher band, making Band 6 appropriate.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The writing contains a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some ambition with structures like relative clauses ('scholars who learn with the help of teacher'). However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are frequent errors involving articles ('the important part of students' life', 'a new language'), prepositional use and relative pronouns ('methods with they explain'), subject-verb agreement ('a learner who do their study'), and tense consistency ('show that the scholars... are'). While these errors do not completely obscure the meaning, they are persistent enough to cap the score at Band 5.0, as the frequency of grammatical lapses impacts the overall flow and readability of the text.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.