Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-10-01

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)

A vast majority of students prefer to study English on their own rather than taking admission in any formal english course. But this statement is highly debated because people often argue that it is very hard for the students to manage on their own without teachers assistance. I agree with the former notion but students shold take more balanced approach.

One of the most worthwhile reason in support of the first statement that , English is a language, students could not learn this by studying one book or by taking multiple lectures, but a constant and steady practice is requie to master this language. Grammar , tenses and sentence stucture is the center of any langauge and students find it very difficult to learn this without professional teachers. But the students who read multiple books and novels on their own can learn the grammatical stucture more effectively . For an instance,the parents who instill the reading habit in their children from the start require less help from the teachers.

However, English is a ubiquitous language and widely speak everywhere, so students shoud have a command on this lanaguage to grow themelves confidentally not only in academic but also in professional lives. So, there is no harm but it would be highly effective that they should get enroll in english courses, if the students cant perfect this skill by themselves.

To conclude,English is not a one time lecture, its a language and its proiliferating day by day with extensive vocabulary. So, the teachers can teach basics but its on students to perfect this skill by themsleves with constant practice and thorough reading sessions .

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both independent study and formal courses, presenting a somewhat shifting position. While the introduction states that the writer agrees with independent study, it also suggests students should take a more balanced approach, making the overall stance slightly unclear at times. Some relevant ideas are introduced, such as the importance of reading novels or habits instilled by parents, but these ideas remain under-developed and lack fully persuasive examples. To reach the next level, the writer needs to maintain a clearer, more consistent position throughout and extend their arguments with fully explained examples and more robust reasoning.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a generally coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph-by-paragraph structure that attempts to guide the reader through the introduction, body arguments, and conclusion. However, the logical progression is sometimes hindered by mechanical or slightly repetitive transitions, such as the overuse of 'But' and 'However' to link opposing thoughts. Additionally, referencing is occasionally unclear, which disrupts the flow between sentences. To move to a higher band, the writer should employ a wider and more flexible range of cohesive devices and ensure smoother transitions between ideas to maintain a clearer path of progression throughout the text.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating some less common items such as 'ubiquitous', 'proliferating', and 'independent'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors in word choice, form, and spelling, including 'taking admission', 'teachers assistance', 'requie', 'stucture', 'speak', 'shoud', 'lanaguage', 'themelves', 'confidentally', 'get enroll', and 'proiliferating'. These inaccuracies occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader or require rereading. To achieve a higher score, the writer needs to expand their control over less common lexical items, ensure correct word forms and collocations, and eliminate spelling mistakes.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response displays a limited range of sentence structures, with frequent attempts at complex sentences resulting in noticeable errors. There are frequent mistakes in verb forms, subject-verb agreement, and missing articles, such as 'students could not learn this', 'Grammar , tenses and sentence stucture is', 'students cant perfect this skill', and punctuation issues around commas and spacing. These errors are frequent enough to cause some difficulty for the reader. To progress, the writer must incorporate a wider variety of complex grammatical structures with increased accuracy and improve overall control over basic grammatical rules and punctuation.

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

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