Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-10-27

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 6.0)

There are numerous students who take a year gap after completing school education and before starting university studies either for travel purpose or to gain work experience. Such non-academic life experience benfits students on their return to academics. I firmly believe that taking one year gap between highschool and university education benefits individuals when they are stick to academics in different ways; however, if they got totally unrelated due to any positive or negative reasons, they will loose consistency and will need further more time to adjust to academics after their arrival in universities.

The trend of taking breaks after school education usually results in loosing competency, interest and focusing stamina either it has been done for long travel and tourism purposes or to attain professional experiences. These students get addicted to a different schedule and life which might not match with academic mindset and eventually they loose interest on their rejoining the academic field. For example, my younger brother has taken a year gap after his intermediate education and his results were not satisfactory in comparison to his previous results.

Sometimes working in a specific field related to future university education leads to better understanding and performance in the graduation studies. Moving to natural areas for tourism and travel puposes adds up in health conditions and mental well being and eventually to better performance during university education. For an instance, one of my junior fellow has completed 9 months diploma after school educationa and joined the our agriculture university where he became a gold medalist.

Therefore, it is necessary to get attaced to the academics in a possible way to perform better in unversity and professional life.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your position is clear: you believe a gap year can help students, but that losing academic habits may make returning difficult. You address both sides and give relevant examples, including your brother’s weaker results and a former student’s success after a diploma. However, the discussion is uneven: the risks of losing focus are explained more fully than the benefits, which are mainly asserted through work experience and travel. The link between travel, wellbeing, and university performance also needs clearer explanation. To strengthen the response, develop each reason with a specific mechanism and show how it supports your overall view, while clarifying whether you agree overall despite the risks you identify.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, two body paragraphs presenting contrasting effects, and a conclusion. This gives the reader a coherent overall route through your argument. You also use transitions such as “For example,” “Sometimes,” and “Therefore” to signal relationships between ideas. At times, however, the progression within paragraphs is unclear. The first body paragraph moves from travel and work to loss of focus without explaining why these experiences usually cause that outcome, while the second combines career-related work, tourism, health, and academic results. Some references, such as “these students,” are broad. Group related points and use clearer links to show how each example supports the claim.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a reasonable range of topic vocabulary, including “work experience,” “professional experiences,” “academic mindset,” and “mental well being.” These choices help communicate the main ideas, and some less common expressions show an effort to be precise. However, several word choices and collocations are inaccurate or unnatural, such as “take a year gap,” “loosing competency,” and “attaced to the academics.” Spelling errors—including “benfits,” “puposes,” and “unversity”—also reduce accuracy. Some phrases are vague, particularly “positive or negative reasons” and “different ways.” Aim for standard academic collocations and check spelling carefully; more precise wording will make your argument easier to follow.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including a contrast in the opening (“however”) and conditional phrasing such as “if they got totally unrelated.” This shows some range, and the main message is generally understandable. Some grammatical errors remain, especially in verb forms and sentence construction. For example, “when they are stick to academics” needs a correctly formed verb phrase, and “if they got totally unrelated” does not fit the intended conditional meaning. The sentence beginning “The trend … usually results” also has an unclear structure around “either it has been done.” Review tense and conditional forms, and divide long sentences when the relationship between clauses is difficult to control.

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

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