Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-11-07

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Write about the following topic:

Many young people choose to take a year out between finishing school and starting university in order to gain work experience or to travel. The experience of non-academic life this offers benefits the individual when they return to education.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

After completing secondary education most people want to do work or take a break for one year before starting their university education. I am totally agree with the statement because this one year help them alot in the practical life and also in decision making.

Firstly, taking one year break between the secondary and tertiary education can help students to make their life. It help them to get relevant work experience in a well reputed organisation, which help them to build their skills. Most of the people become social when they work with different people who belong to different cultures. For example, when a student complete his secondary education, and he started work in an organization definitely he will learn new things related to his field, and will polish his skills.

Additionally, this one year help them to develope thier mindset and ideas because they think better about their future career. When a person take break for one year and they work and meet with different professionals, it help them to choose a better field which is directly related to their future career goals. For example, if a student study pre engineering in FSC and he take one year break and in this he find that he is not suitable for this field so he can change easily his field.

In conclusion, taking one break between studies can help students alot. But in my opinion it will be very helpful for them if they work with an organisation and learn some new skills and develop their mindset and think about their future career goals.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your position is clear: you strongly agree that a year away from formal study can benefit young people, and both body paragraphs give relevant reasons. You explain that work can build skills and social experience, and that meeting professionals may help students reconsider their career direction. The engineering example makes the second point more concrete. However, the discussion focuses almost entirely on employment; the prompt also mentions travel, which could have been addressed as another source of non-academic learning. Some claims, such as the first paragraph’s point that work helps students “make their life,” are unclear or not fully explained. Develop each benefit with a clearer explanation and a specific example to make the response more complete.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction states your view, two body paragraphs present separate benefits, and the conclusion restates your position. “Firstly” and “Additionally” help signal the progression from work experience to career decisions. However, some connections are mechanical, and the examples do not always follow smoothly from the general point. In the first body paragraph, the shift from building skills to becoming social is not fully developed, while the example mainly repeats the work-experience idea. References such as “this one year” and “it” are sometimes unclear because their antecedents are not precise. Use clearer links between each claim and its example, and vary transitions while keeping the paragraph focus consistent.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including relevant terms such as “work experience,” “professionals,” “future career goals,” and “tertiary education.” There are also attempts at more specific phrasing, such as “relevant work experience” and “different cultures.” However, several word choices and collocations are inaccurate or vague, including “make their life,” “well reputed organisation,” and “change easily his field.” Spelling and word-form errors such as “alot,” “develope,” and “thier” also reduce accuracy. Aim for more natural academic collocations and check spelling carefully; this will make your ideas clearer and give you greater flexibility in expressing them.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including clauses with “because,” “when,” and “if,” so there is some variety in structure. The main ideas are generally understandable, but errors occur across the response. For example, “I am totally agree” has an incorrect verb form, and “this one year help them” lacks subject–verb agreement. In “when a student complete … and he started work,” the verb forms do not remain consistent. Articles and sentence boundaries also need attention, as in “take one year break” and the long example beginning “For example, when a student…”. Practise accurate agreement, tense consistency, and article use, then punctuate longer sentences so their clauses are easier to follow.

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

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