Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-10-22

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 6.0)

Many young people nowadays consider taking a year out right after finishing school and before starting university in order to gain work experience or to travel. This experience of non-academic life offers several advantages to the individual when they consider returning to education.

In my opinion, I believe that work experience and travel between school and university have numerous benefits to young people.

First of all, working can teach the individual how to manage money and provides him with financial responsibilities. For instance, when a person starts working, he will be responsible for his own needs, such as rent, food, clothes, and amusements, which can later on provide him with decent financial management skills such as saving.

Assisting customers or working with other collegues can help develop certain communication skills, and have a better social life. When serving an angry customer,for example, remaining calmness and having patience teach self control and anger management.

In addition, traveling helps the person to relax and have a break from the stress and exhausion of everyday classes and monthly exams, it can also teach non-academic skills such as reducing social anxiety, improving communication and exploring new things.

Foe example, visiting different countries require speaking and communicationg with local citizens, which can deepen the knowledge of their culture, habits and traditions. In some cases, traveling helps to acknowledge basic phrases and sentences of different languages in order to get along with locals..

Last but not least, I think that both working and traveling have the ability to build or develop a person's personality, improve his social skills, and make him more mature.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

Your position is clear: you support taking a year out, and you address both work and travel with relevant benefits. The examples about budgeting for rent and food, handling an angry customer, and communicating with local people help make the discussion specific. This meets the task well, while showing some of the fuller development expected at the next level. However, the work paragraph explains financial responsibility more fully than the social-skills point, and the travel paragraph lists several benefits without showing in detail how they help someone when they return to university. Develop that link—for example, explain how greater independence or cultural awareness could support study and participation in university life.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a coherent overall arrangement: an introduction, a paragraph on work, one on travel, and a concluding summary. Signposts such as “First of all,” “In addition,” and “Last but not least” make the main stages easy to follow. Cohesion is sometimes mechanical, however, and some links between ideas are unclear. The sentence beginning “In addition, traveling helps…” joins several points with a comma, making the relationship between taking a break and gaining skills less clear. The final paragraph repeats benefits already listed rather than drawing them together. Use clearer sentence boundaries and more precise references, and make the conclusion show how the examples support your view.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for the topic, including “financial management skills,” “social anxiety,” “self control,” and “traditions.” These choices help communicate relevant ideas, and the meaning is generally clear. There are some inaccurate or awkward word choices and spelling errors, such as “collegues,” “exhausion,” and “Foe example.” Phrases including “provides him with financial responsibilities” and “helps to acknowledge basic phrases” are also not natural in this context. Aim for more precise collocations and avoid repeating broad terms such as “skills” and “helps.” For example, you could describe work as teaching someone to “take financial responsibility” and travel as helping them “learn basic phrases.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including clauses introduced by “when,” “which,” and “in order to.” Most ideas remain understandable, but some grammatical errors and punctuation problems reduce accuracy. In “working can teach the individual how to manage money and provides him,” the verb forms do not agree; use “can teach … and provide.” The sentence beginning “In addition, traveling helps…” is a comma splice, and “visiting different countries require” needs subject–verb agreement (“requires”). There are also inconsistent pronouns, such as moving from “a person” to “him.” Check agreement and sentence boundaries carefully, and vary sentence structures while keeping each clause complete.

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