Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-09-27

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)

It is argued that young individuals prefer non acadrmic break after winding up secondary education and before joining tertiary levels so as to be expertised in work as well as adventuring. while this non academic break offers several benefits to individuals when they come back to education ,i will argue that this short leave may have setbacks such as shift in urge to continue working .

Although having hoiliday in between the period of finishing high school and university ,gives young people chance to explore the world .Moving to new state widens scope of understaning new cultulres. They are able to learn how to cook foreign foods ,which will give them experience to work in multinational tourist hotels.In addion to learning new customs ,youths learn to be self -indepedent whenever they get a recess period, they conceptualize how they future prospects would be,and they will solely make right decisions about their future lives without supervision by their parents.

However , a break after secondary and before tertiary poses negative impacts to teenagers. Firstly, youths may not come back to continue with education when they land on lucrative unskilled contracts,many would continue working during this holiday provided they are living comfortably.This results to the degradation of educational quality.Another reason why am against short break, is that it contributes to idleness in young generation , not all would engage in substantial activities due limited places to get acquire experience.

In conclusion ,while having non academic breaks in mid of high school and university help young people an opportunity to gain job experience and offer chance to adventure. It also have negative effects such as laxity to continue with studies and low quality of education. Breaks to therefore be balanced and monitored by instutions in order to give positive outcomes

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The student addresses all parts of the task by presenting a clear position regarding the gap year phenomenon, acknowledging both advantages and disadvantages. Ideas are extended with examples, such as learning new cultures and cooking foreign foods, though some supporting points remain slightly general and underdeveloped. For instance, the transition from learning customs to working in multinational tourist hotels could be explained more thoroughly. The position is maintained throughout the essay, leading to a balanced conclusion that calls for institutional monitoring. The response meets the core requirements of Task 2 by exploring both sides of the argument and presenting a coherent viewpoint. Minor improvements in depth and specificity would push the response into higher band territory, but overall, the task is adequately fulfilled.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs addressing distinct viewpoints, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is utilised appropriately to separate the advantages and disadvantages. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. There are noticeable punctuation and spacing issues, such as missing spaces before commas and periods (e.g., 'education ,i will argue'), and referencing is occasionally unclear. Cohesive devices like 'However', 'Firstly', and 'In conclusion' are used to signal logical progression, but the flow is occasionally disrupted by awkward phrasing and mechanical transitions. Overall arrangement is logical, but management of cohesive devices needs greater precision and control.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student attempts a range of vocabulary appropriate for an academic discussion, including terms such as 'tertiary levels', 'multinational', 'lucrative', and 'degradation'. However, there are frequent word choice and spelling inaccuracies, such as 'acadrmic', 'hoiliday', 'understaning', 'cultulres', 'indepedent', and 'instutions'. Less common lexical items are attempted, but inaccuracies in collocation and spelling mean the range is limited to minimally adequate for the task. While communication is rarely impeded, these lexical errors prevent the response from achieving a higher band score. Greater attention to word formation and proofreading for spelling mistakes would significantly elevate the quality of the writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating subordinating clauses with 'Although', 'while', and 'when'. However, control over grammar and punctuation is inconsistent. Frequent errors include punctuation spacing errors, missing articles (e.g., 'when they land on lucrative unskilled contracts'), subject-verb agreement issues (e.g., 'Breaks to therefore be balanced'), and run-on sentences. For example, the sentence 'Although having hoiliday in between the period of finishing high school and university ,gives young people chance to explore the world .' contains incorrect punctuation separating the dependent clause from the main verb. While meaning is generally clear despite these errors, the frequency of grammatical and punctuation slips keeps the score at this level.

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