Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-09-12

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)

Many students take a year out between finishing school and starting university in order to gain some kind of work experience or to travel. This experience help thems alot because in their upcoming life and when they return to education. This experience is important for them because this unique situation trains them mentally and makes them a completely different. When someone takes a gap year, than they have a chance to learn about different things and they discover different fields. This helps them to identify thier interest. They can understanf that in which field they are interested. Also during period of time a studeent also does different jobs and this experience changes them completely. For instance, I know a person and he is my cousin. His name is Hassan. During his college days he was intersested in science. But after taking a gap year, his perspective was completely changed. Now he is currently doing a degree by the name of political sciences. During his gap year he had a chance to meet one of our uncle who is currently a inspector of Punjab Police. After meeting him, he became deeply interested in his job and wanted to become a government officer. So now he is perparing for the exams. Because during that time he was able to discover his true interest. So in my opinion, students who are sure about there interest and are unable to make a decision should take a gap year and think about it more critically rather than making a wrong decision.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student addresses the prompt by discussing the benefits of taking a gap year, specifically focusing on how it helps individuals discover their true interests and make better academic choices. A clear position is maintained throughout, concluding that undecided students benefit from taking time out. However, the development of ideas leans heavily on a single personal anecdote about a cousin named Hassan rather than broader arguments or varied examples. While the ideas are relevant, they are somewhat under-developed due to this narrow focus. The response meets the criteria for Band 6 because it addresses all parts of the task and presents a clear position, but the support lacks breadth and depth.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The response has a coherent overall arrangement, with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion. However, paragraphing is problematic; the second paragraph is exceptionally long and contains multiple distinct ideas that should be separated into distinct paragraphs to aid readability. Cohesive devices are used, but sometimes in a repetitive or mechanical way, such as repeatedly starting sentences with 'During' or 'So'. Referencing is generally clear, though occasional transitional lapses occur, such as the abrupt shift into the cousin's anecdote. This performance aligns with Band 5 due to the lack of appropriate paragraphing and repetitive use of cohesive devices, despite the logical progression of the narrative.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully using terms like 'perspective', 'critically', and 'government officer'. However, there are notable spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'hems' instead of 'helps', 'thier' instead of 'their', 'understanf' instead of 'understand', 'perparing' instead of 'preparing', and 'there' instead of 'their'. Additionally, phrasal expressions like 'doing a degree by the name of' are unnatural and imprecise. These errors do not completely impede communication, placing the lexical resource firmly at Band 5 due to noticeable spelling mistakes and a limited control of word choice and collocation.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'Many students take a year out between finishing school and starting university in order to gain some kind of work experience or to travel.' However, grammatical accuracy is weak, featuring frequent errors like subject-verb agreement issues ('This experience help thems alot'), awkward relative clauses ('that in which field they are interested'), and punctuation errors like comma splices ('When someone takes a gap year, than they have a chance...'). Complex structures are frequently faulty. These persistent errors place the grammar at a Band 5, as they occur frequently and can occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader.

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

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