Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-10-17

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 5.0)

Many young people choose to take a year out between finshing school and starting university in order to gain work experience or to travel. I firmly believe that the experience of non-academic life this offers benefits the individual when they return to education.

On the one hand, students often feel imprisioned when they are in high school. They perhaps need some time from study. Some of them plan the travel trip to some peaceful place and many of them join any type of job suiting them to gain experience of work before they go to university, so that, they can serve in a better way when they finished their higher education. It is also a way to earn some money to become financially independant. It also has an healthy impact on their perspective to choose their field of interest and money in the university.

Conversely, it also has a severe disadvantage that students doing any sort of job before the higher education usually don't feel themselves a student. It is, therefore, bad in their side because they do not study with focused mindset in future. Despite earning some money, they are oftenly disturbing their future degree.

In conclusion, taking a gap after finshing a school have both positive and negative effect, depending on the person. In present ages, money is considered a basic need of life, but doing a job before completing education, changes the student's mind to working model. Therefore, it is better to complete the study first and then join thier respective jobs according to their disciplines and interest based on their skills.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

Your position is clear at the start: you firmly support the benefits of a year out. You give relevant points about gaining work experience, earning money and choosing a field of study, and you also acknowledge a possible drawback. However, the discussion is only partial and the ideas are under-developed: for example, you say that travel can be peaceful and work can help students serve better after university, but do not explain these effects with a specific example or clear reasoning. The conclusion shifts towards advising students to finish their studies first, which weakens your original position. The response is 227 words, below the required 250; 39 words copied from the prompt were not counted.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, two body paragraphs signalled by “On the one hand” and “Conversely,” and a conclusion. This helps the reader identify the main stages of your argument. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes unclear: the first body paragraph moves quickly from travel to work, finances and choosing a university field without showing how these points connect. Some linking is mechanical, particularly the repeated use of “also” and the contrast marker “Conversely,” which introduces a drawback but does not fully develop its relationship to the earlier benefits. The conclusion also changes direction. Group related points more clearly and use transitions to show the precise relationship between them.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use vocabulary relevant to the topic, including “work experience,” “financially independent,” “perspective” and “field of interest.” These choices communicate the general subject, but the range is limited and several word choices or collocations are inaccurate, sometimes making the meaning difficult to follow. For instance, “plan the travel trip,” “join any type of job,” “healthy impact on their perspective” and “disturbing their future degree” are not natural expressions in this context. There are also spelling errors such as “finshing,” “imprisioned,” “independant” and “thier.” Build a more precise range of phrases for discussing gap years, and check spelling and collocations during revision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and longer sentences, including a reason clause beginning “so that” and a contrast introduced by “Despite.” However, complex sentences are often faulty, and errors occur frequently enough to affect clarity. Examples include “when they finished their higher education,” where the tense does not fit the intended future meaning, and “taking a gap after finshing a school have both positive and negative effect,” which has problems with the subject–verb agreement, article use and plural form. The sentence beginning “It is, therefore, bad in their side” also has an unclear grammatical construction. Practise building accurate sentences with subordinate clauses, and check agreement, articles and verb forms before adding further complexity.

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