Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-09-19

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In many countries these days, the number of people continuing their education after school has increased, and the range of courses available at universities and colleges has also increased.

Do you think this is a positive or negative development?

You should use your own ideas, knowledge and experience and support your arguments with examples and relevant experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Education and seeking knowledge is always been a primary objectif for people, till this day. This made the educational content more accessible for everyone, whether that be in universities, or outside of it like: online courses and books. Which results in the end an increase of well-educated individuals.

In my opinon, this is a positive development that would ease our lifes as a society and individuals. For instance, we can see that the most developed countries are those who's their citizens have a bare minimum of education (mainly with university degrees). Moreover, overall, there are some studies shows that the more you are smart the more you are going to live more, which makes sence, since the more you have knowledge the more you can evade problems and live a healthy life. Of course this is not true 100% but logically speaking, it makes sence.

For me, i have friends and reletives in both sides, and what i have observed so far, those who have higher degrees or self learners know how to live their lives properly and can't be manupilated so easly. Also, their purpose in life differ, for example: a highly educated person have more embition and creativity than a poorly educated one, because they see the life differently (the first one always trying to enhance his life and gain intelect, where the other one only focus on money and futilities).

To conclude, education was and still the way that we use to achieve our true potential and we should always invest in it so that we can continue to thrive.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses the prompt by clearly taking a position that the increase in further education is a positive development. Ideas are presented and supported with personal observations and general reasoning, such as the correlation between education and longevity or better decision-making capabilities. However, some arguments remain somewhat generalised and lack deep academic extension. For instance, the claim that educated people live longer is introduced casually without strong supporting evidence, and the comparison between educated and poorly educated individuals tends to over-generalise. Despite these minor limitations, all parts of the task are addressed with a clear overarching position throughout, aligning well with the expectations of Band 6.5 to Band 7.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a clear overall progression, moving from an introduction of the trend to personal and societal arguments, and finally concluding with a summary statement. Paragraphing is utilised to structure different trains of thought. However, cohesive devices are sometimes overly basic or used mechanically, such as 'For instance', 'Moreover', and 'To conclude'. Furthermore, sentence-to-sentence referencing occasionally breaks down, such as 'For me, i have friends and reletives in both sides' where cohesion is somewhat conversational rather than academic. While the logical arrangement is coherent overall, the mechanical nature of transitions and occasional awkward phrasing keep this criterion at a Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for discussing the topic, featuring attempts at less common items such as 'accessible', 'correlation', and 'ambition' (spelled 'embition'). However, there are numerous spelling errors ('objectif' instead of objective, 'opinon', 'lifes' instead of lives, 'sence', 'reletives', 'manupilated', 'easly', 'intelect') and word choice inaccuracies ('futilies', 'the more you are smart'). These errors do not impede communication as the writer's meaning remains clear, but they highlight a lack of precision and control. This places the lexical performance firmly in the Band 5.5 to 6.0 range, reflecting an adequate range with noticeable surface-level errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including conditional clauses and relative clauses (e.g., 'those who's their citizens have...'). However, grammatical accuracy is weak, featuring frequent errors such as subject-verb agreement issues ('there are some studies shows', 'a highly educated person have'), incorrect preposition use, and persistent punctuation and capitalization errors (e.g., lowercase 'i'). While complex structures are attempted, they are frequently flawed, and the high frequency of basic grammatical slips causes some distraction for the reader. This corresponds to the Band 5.0 descriptors, where frequent errors persist and control over complex grammar is limited.

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

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