Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-10-03

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)

In todays rapidly evolvig world, Non academaic life has became very important. Young people today choose to take a year out from their student life to gain some work experience as it helps them in education when they return back and travelling enhance there mindset. I partially agree that experience of non academic life gives benefits the student when they return to education, but I also hold the stance that it interupts there education.

In this contemporary era, young generation is multitalented. They wants to do best, having the thought of gaining work experience from the market is actually a fantastic idea and great strategy aswell because the experience matters alot, it teaches you the real life problems and makes you enough mature when you return back to education. Evolving is the process which every individual should follow and getting the work experience is itself the education. Travelling is the best part of learning and improving yourself as it boast your confidence, makes you extrovert when you meet with the different age groups of people. Travelling not just improve your mental health but also keeps you optimistic.

On one hand, non acamedic life distract you from your goals and studies. It acts as a source of entertainment but can also ruin your education routine beacause a young person can get off the track more easily.

In conclusion I would say Non academic are beneficial if used rightly and accordingly. There should be a an equal balance between academic and non acedemic life.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing the advantages and disadvantages of taking a gap year, presenting a partial agreement with the statement. However, the development of ideas remains limited and under-developed. For instance, the discussion on how travelling enhances confidence and mental health in the second paragraph is stated briefly without concrete examples or sufficient extension. Similarly, the counterargument regarding distraction is introduced in a single short sentence ('non acamedic life distract you from your goals and studies') without further elaboration. The writer attempts to maintain a position, but the overall treatment of the task stays at a surface level, meeting some requirements of the prompt while lacking the depth of fully explored ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays some organization with a recognizable introduction, body paragraphs, and a brief conclusion, yet there is a lack of clear overall progression. Paragraphing is attempted, but the third paragraph is extremely brief and merges multiple ideas abruptly. Cohesive devices are used mechanically and sometimes inaccurately, such as the repetitive use of 'Travelling' as a sentence starter or transitional links like 'On one hand' appearing without a corresponding 'On the other hand'. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and the overall flow between sentences and paragraphs feels disjointed, causing the reader to navigate abrupt shifts in the argument rather than experiencing a smooth logical progression.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is limited but minimally adequate to convey the basic message. There are numerous noticeable errors in spelling, word form, and word choice that distract the reader and occasionally cause difficulty, such as 'evolvig' instead of 'evolving', 'Non academaic' instead of 'non-academic', 'interupts' instead of 'interrupts', 'boast' instead of 'boost', and 'extrovert' used as an adjective. The writer attempts some less common phrasing, but lack of precision and frequent lexical inaccuracies restrict the vocabulary to a basic level. Spelling mistakes are recurrent throughout the response, reflecting a need for more careful proofreading and a wider range of vocabulary control.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer demonstrates a limited range of grammatical structures, relying mostly on simple sentences alongside some attempts at complex sentences that are frequently faulty. There are frequent errors in grammar, punctuation, and agreement that can cause difficulty for the reader, including subject-verb agreement issues like 'young generation is multitalented. They wants to do best', missing articles ('getting the work experience'), and pronoun referencing errors such as 'interupts there education' instead of 'their'. Punctuation is also weak, particularly in compound and complex structures where clauses are run together without proper comma splices or conjunctions. While the basic meaning can be discerned, the density of grammatical errors prevents the writing from achieving higher structural control.

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