Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-08-30

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)

Taking a year out between finishing school and starting university in order to gain work experience or to travel have both advantages and disadvantages. This essay would highlight both advantages and disadvantages of taking a year out between finishing school and starting university.

To better understand the advantages of taking a year out, we should understand pomodero (Tomato) technique. This technique states that taking a 5 minute break between different tasks can substaintially increase productivity. This also applies to taking a year out between finishing school and starting university. This break can help your mind relax and reset and enhance it's performance. This break also helps to indentify a clear path for moving forward. Taking a break does not only give you intellectual peace and freedom, but this might also create an oppotunity to gather funds for starting university.

The disadvantages of taking a year out are fewer. This could create discountinuty in the educational path and might make it difficult to start university after a break. Our brain is highly complex and might make it difficult to reconnect with educational material. Some problems might arise from extensive use and advancement of technology. Technological advancements also shape how education is imparted, a year's break might introduce new technology and change how universities are imparting education. This could become the biggest hurdle in continuing education after a break. The chances of students coming back to university after a years break are statistically less.

However, universities these days offer different support programs for students coming back after a break. Such efforts by educational institutional have drastically increased the number of students coming back.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt but lacks a clear, consistent position. The instructions ask to what extent you agree or disagree, but the essay focuses on listing advantages and disadvantages rather than taking a definitive stance. While the 'Pomodoro technique' analogy is creative, it is not particularly relevant to the context of a gap year, making the argument feel somewhat disconnected. The ideas regarding the 'disadvantages' are better developed, but the overall response lacks the depth required for a higher band score as it does not fully explore the implications of the gap year on the individual's return to education.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organised into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. However, the progression of ideas is sometimes mechanical. The use of cohesive devices is limited and occasionally repetitive, such as the frequent use of 'This break' or 'This technique'. While there is an attempt to use linking words like 'However', the transition between the introduction and the body paragraphs is abrupt. The logical flow is present but could be improved by using a wider variety of cohesive markers to connect sentences and ideas more naturally.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, but it lacks the precision and range expected at higher levels. There are several spelling errors, such as 'substaintially', 'indentify', 'oppotunity', and 'discountinuty'. Additionally, the term 'pomodero' is misspelled. While the student attempts to use some academic vocabulary, the word choice is often basic or slightly misused, such as 'imparted' in the context of how universities teach. To improve, the student should focus on accurate spelling and incorporating more sophisticated collocations related to education and personal development.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally distract the reader. For example, 'Taking a year out... have both advantages' contains a subject-verb agreement error. There are also punctuation and possessive errors, such as 'it's performance' (should be 'its'). While the meaning is generally clear, the frequency of these errors prevents the writing from reaching a higher band. The student should focus on proofreading for basic subject-verb agreement and possessive forms to improve accuracy.

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

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