Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-10-04

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 6.0)

Most students choose to study English independently on a self-study basis rather than attending a formal course which make it difficult for them to manage their studies in the absence of a teacher. I do agree with this assumption as I believe that guidance of a teacher is essential to learn a language in an effective manner. However, there are reasons that need to be considered relating to those who choose a path of self-study.

Although studying English language independently is challanging, yet, there is a vast resource of study material avaialble on social media platforms due to English being the most spoken language in the world. The course of self-study allows students to learn at their will and they can always find a time at different hours to study English daily. They are not constrained to classrooms which make it feel like more of a hobby than a college course. Moreover, there are diverse options available to learn with entertainment like watching movies, TV shows or news channels.

While there are some benefits of self-study, however, the shortcomings of learning English without the assistance of a teacher outweigh its benefits. The teacher knows its students better than anyone else and he assesses them on the basis of their performance. It not only help students in identifying their weaknesses, but also encourages them to learn and avoid same mistakes in future. Moreover, a classroom envirnment provides opportunity to interact with other students as well who are on same course of learning English language. This highly boosts the confidence of a student who is learning English under supervision of his teacher. Being brought up in South Asia, which is natively non-English speaking region, I have already seen a significant improvement while studying English as a formal course under guidance of an English teacher.

Conclusively, my opinion is more inclined towards those learning English through a formal course with assistance of a teacher based on the fact that it provides better learning opportunities and also helps in improvement areas identified by their teacher.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the task and presents a clear position throughout, successfully arguing that the guidance of a teacher is essential. The student covers both the benefits of self-study, such as flexibility and access to abundant online resources, and the advantages of formal learning, including personalized feedback and peer interaction. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others; for instance, the points regarding self-study flexibility in the second paragraph are slightly general and could have been extended with deeper analysis. To reach a higher level, the student needs to fully develop all main ideas with more extended explanations and relevant examples rather than briefly touching upon them. Note that thirteen words copied directly from the prompt were excluded from the official word count.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear central topic running through each paragraph. Information and ideas are logically sequenced, moving from an introduction of the stance to the benefits of independent study, followed by the superior advantages of teacher-led learning, and ending with a clear conclusion. Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately to separate these distinct themes. However, cohesion is at times a bit mechanical or repetitive, utilizing standard transitional markers like 'Moreover' and 'While there are some benefits of self-study, however' which leads to a slight doubling of contrast words. Referencing is mostly clear, but to achieve a higher band, the writer would need to employ a wider range of cohesive devices more flexibly and ensure that transitions between sentences flow more naturally without relying on formulaic connectors.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'independently', 'constrained', and 'interaction'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, such as 'challanging' instead of challenging, 'avaialble', 'envirnment', and the awkward phrase 'improvement areas' instead of areas for improvement. While these lexical errors and minor inaccuracies do not impede communication, they restrict the score because they show limited precision in spelling and collocation. To improve lexical resource, the student should expand their control of less common lexical items, ensure correct word forms, and pay closer attention to spelling to avoid basic slips that detract from the overall quality of the writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating attempts at subordination and relative clauses, such as in the sentences containing 'which make it difficult' and 'who are on same course'. There are some errors in grammar and punctuation present throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('which make it' instead of which makes it; 'The teacher knows its students' instead of their students), article omissions ('under supervision of his teacher'), and minor structural awkwardness like 'avoid same mistakes'. Fortunately, these errors rarely impede communication and the reader can easily follow the argument. To attain a higher band, the writer must produce a greater proportion of error-free sentences and demonstrate a tighter control over complex grammatical structures, articles, and pluralisation.

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

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