Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-08-19

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)

A lot of young adults opt for a gap year after finishing high school and before they enroll foe tertiary education so that they can work or travel. One can agree to a greater extend that the experience of non academic life offers benefits before going back to school.

One of the major benefits a gap year is exposure. The exposure that comes with travelling during the gap year can assist in making informed decisions regarding one's career paths as well as understanding the diffrent skills and emotional capacity certain courses and jobs requre.

Someone can travel and realise that the course that they wanted to take has no oppotunities in the job markert, so travelling gives them a sense of exposure and they can decide from an informed point of view.

Adittionally, young adults working before they get into tertiary education allows them to get a glimps of reality of life and learn responsibility. Working allows the people to save money for the education and other additional expenses such as leisure and accommodation. In under-developed countries working can even help in raising money for the tertiary fees this will help the people to lern responsibility of saving money and working hard as well as understanding the dynamics of different working enviroments.

In conclusion, it is undeniable that taking a gap year either for working or for travelling has more advantages than disadvantages.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing the benefits of a gap year, such as career exposure and financial responsibility. However, the essay is under the 250-word minimum, which significantly impacts the development of ideas. While the position is clear, the arguments are somewhat repetitive and lack depth. For instance, the point about 'exposure' is mentioned but not fully explored with concrete examples. To improve, you should expand on your points with more detailed illustrations and ensure you meet the minimum word count to allow for a more thorough exploration of the topic.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, each with a clear focus. You use some cohesive devices like 'Additionally' and 'In conclusion' to link ideas. However, the flow between sentences is sometimes mechanical, and the transition between the introduction and the body paragraphs could be smoother. The referencing is generally clear, but the overall structure feels a bit thin due to the brevity of the response. To reach a higher band, focus on using a wider variety of linking words and ensuring that each paragraph develops a single, cohesive idea thoroughly.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'tertiary education', 'informed decisions', and 'dynamics'. However, there are several spelling errors throughout the text, such as 'foe' (for), 'diffrent' (different), 'requre' (require), 'oppotunities' (opportunities), 'markert' (market), 'Adittionally' (Additionally), 'glimps' (glimpse), and 'lern' (learn). These errors are frequent enough to be noticeable. To improve, focus on proofreading your work to eliminate these basic spelling mistakes and try to incorporate more sophisticated collocations to enhance the precision of your writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are several grammatical inaccuracies, such as 'One can agree to a greater extend' (extent) and 'the experience of a gap year is exposure' (missing article). There are also issues with subject-verb agreement and preposition usage. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they occur frequently. To improve, focus on mastering basic sentence construction and proofreading for common grammatical slips, such as article usage and verb forms.

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

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