Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-10-09

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 recent years taking a gap year between school and university has become increasingly popular.I agree with this view that these real world experiences is highly beneficial for students before they resume their studies.

There are two advantages of taking a gagp year.

Firstly,work experience makes student more mature and stable.When they earn money through work they know about real value of money and become financialy strong.Moreover work experience realized the worth hard-working.Work experience also develop better behaviour and sense of communication. For example a student who worked as a waiter know about how to deal with customers,take orders and serve food.

On other hand travelling provides real life skills and students also feel relaxed between school and university gap year.When students come on trip they managed budget,make plans and spend time with friends which make students more strong and confident.Furthermore during travelling students leran about others culture and languages.For instance a student of international relations also know about cultures before studying their degree.

While many people argued that taking gap year has disadvantage because a number of students lost their time.These activities should doing after education.Many students cannot perform well in study due to taking gap because this diminish students momentum and creativity.

In conclusion both views has advantages work experience and travelling makes students responsible,mature and how to cope with difficulties.On other hand it has disadvantages because students lost their time to continue their education as compare to working or travelling.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You take a clear position in the introduction, agreeing that real-world experience benefits students, and you discuss both work and travel with relevant examples, such as learning customer service as a waiter and managing a travel budget. You also acknowledge the opposing view that a gap year may interrupt study. However, the response only partially develops the question: the disadvantages are introduced briefly, and the conclusion presents both sides without clearly reaffirming how far you agree. Some claims, such as travel making students “more strong and confident,” need explanation of how these skills help when they return to education. The response is also 7 words below the required minimum, so there is limited space to develop your reasoning. Extend the examples and make your final position explicit.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, paragraphs on work and travel, a paragraph on disadvantages, and a conclusion. Sequencing words such as “Firstly,” “Moreover,” and “On other hand” help signal the direction of ideas. However, progression is sometimes mechanical, and several points are listed rather than connected through explanation. For example, the travel paragraph moves from budgeting to confidence and then culture without showing how each benefit supports university study. Some linking phrases are inaccurate or incomplete, including “On other hand” and “as compare to.” The conclusion also repeats earlier points instead of drawing them together into a clear judgement. Use fewer formulaic transitions and build each paragraph around one main idea, supported by a clear explanation and example.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “work experience,” “financially,” “communication,” “budget,” and “cultures,” and you attempt phrases such as “real-life skills” and “study momentum.” This gives you enough language to communicate the main ideas, but the range is limited and several word-choice, collocation, and spelling errors make the writing less precise. Examples include “gagp year,” “realized the worth hard-working,” “lost their time,” and “diminish students momentum.” Some expressions are understandable but unnatural, such as “more strong” and “come on trip.” Aim to learn common word partnerships and check spelling carefully. More precise vocabulary would also help distinguish the benefits of work experience from those of travel.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including a conditional-style example beginning “When they earn money” and a contrast introduced by “While.” However, the range is limited, and errors occur frequently in sentence structure, verb forms, agreement, articles, and punctuation. For example, “these real world experiences is” has a subject–verb agreement error, while “a student who worked as a waiter know” does not maintain agreement. In “When students come on trip they managed budget,” the tense and sentence structure are faulty. Missing spaces after full stops and commas also affect readability. Practise building accurate sentences with subordinate clauses, and check each sentence for a clear subject, correctly formed verb, and appropriate articles and punctuation.

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

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