Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 4.5 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-09-13
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 4.5)
Yes i agree that this oppurtunity allows an individual to explore the options life gives us. As till the schools end, a person dont know much about the happenings of life as it is less experienced and immature so this one year gap let him allow to find more about world and experience dfferent behaviors of people around the world. He shoud travel along friends or sometimes solo to know the realities of this word and how this world sucks. the need to work and to meet the needs of life. this one year provides much time to an individual todo some side course to earn during his university tenure as well as teach him to chose his best interests. although this whole thing wastes a preious year of one's life and delays the achievements andgoals one wanna achieve but it is much worthy as it gives uh time to chose the best path rather than saving this one year and wasting wholle life by working hard in the directin. This one year exploring make you work in the right direction and make your hardwork pays you back. so in the end, I'll conclude it as this one year year exploring relives your mental stress by travelling nd enjoying after long phase of student life as well as provides you with more oppurtuinities to boost yourself in this lifetime. So it would must be a worthy experience.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 4.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 4.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 4.5 |
| Overall | 4.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The response addresses the prompt by expressing a clear position in agreement with taking a gap year and discusses some benefits like gaining life experience and better career direction. However, the ideas remain somewhat limited and under-developed, relying on informal assertions rather than thorough elaboration. Furthermore, the length requirement of 250 words is not met, as the response contains only 237 words, which negatively impacts the overall task achievement score. Expressions like 'how this world sucks' show a lack of formal academic tone suitable for Task 2. To reach a higher band, the student needs to fully develop ideas with concrete examples and maintain a formal tone throughout while meeting the minimum word count.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.5
The essay is written as a single dense paragraph rather than structured into a proper introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. This lack of paragraphing severely hinders the logical progression of ideas. Although some cohesive devices such as 'although', 'so in the end', and 'as' are attempted, referencing and transitions are frequently clunky and mechanical. The flow is disrupted by run-on sentences and a conversational tone. To improve, the student must divide the essay into clear, distinct paragraphs and use a wider variety of accurate cohesive devices to guide the reader smoothly through the arguments.
Lexical Resource — Band 4.5
The vocabulary used is relatively basic and repetitive, featuring frequent misspellings and informal word choices. Examples of errors include 'oppurtunity', 'dfferent', 'preious', 'relives', 'nd', and 'oppurtuinities'. The student also uses overly casual and emotive phrases like 'how this world sucks' which are inappropriate for an academic essay. There are occasional attempts at less common vocabulary, such as 'tenure' and 'mental stress', but these are undermined by widespread spelling inaccuracies and awkward collocations. A higher band requires a wider lexical range, precise word choice, and correct spelling.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.5
The response displays a very limited range of grammatical structures, relying heavily on simple sentences and overly long, poorly punctuated compound-complex sentences. There are frequent grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('a person dont know'), pronoun inconsistencies ('let him allow to find', 'make you work'), and missing articles. Punctuation is weak, leading to run-on sentences like the final concluding sentence. While some meaning is communicated, the frequency of errors causes strain and difficulty for the reader. To improve, the writer should focus on basic sentence boundaries, correct subject-verb agreement, and avoiding overly tangled clauses.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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