Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-20

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people believe that professionals, such as doctors and engineers, should be required to work in the country where they did their training. Others believe they should be free to work in another country if they wish.

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Some people argues that professionals should stay and work at the place they originally belongs to. However, some firmly believe they should facilitate the other parts of the world by working there. Although working on a place where you were trained will be more convinient, if a person is comfortable on providing their services in other countries there should be no problem in that.

People think the professionals should repay what they learned to that place by working in their original environment. If they work in the place of their training they are already be familiar with the neighbourhood and can focus on their own people. For example, in case of doctors they are already be aware about which common disease are most likely they are going to face because of the climatic conditions or any other reason. Moreover, working in their origin will also demolish the language barrier and give them better understanding. In case of engineers, they know more about the expected challenges of that area and can build the infrastructure as per that.

On the other hand, working in a different country will provide the experts exposure in numerous ways. Working at a new place provide the chances of learning new skills. Doctors can help the people in poor countries by volunteering in a country where there is shortage of medical facilities. This will help improving the state of a developing country. Furthermore, it can also benifit that professional in terms of highest pay and better position with less competition. For instance, if they work in an area where enough educational facilities are not available or people have limited skill set, in such case an expert travelled from any other country could be a very helpful resource

To conclude, it is a good approach to travel if a person desire to move from one country to the other. This could benefit the both the expert and the locals. It will also create more educational and career oppurtunitiess

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student addresses all parts of the task by discussing both views—that professionals should work where they trained versus the freedom to work abroad—and provides a clear personal opinion. Main ideas are presented, such as professionals being familiar with local neighbourhood challenges like specific climatic diseases for doctors or infrastructure needs for engineers, while counterarguments focus on exposure, skill acquisition, and financial benefits. However, some ideas are somewhat underdeveloped or repetitive, tending to generalise without deeper elaboration. For instance, the discussion on doctors helping poor countries lacks specific context beyond broad statements. Despite these minor limitations, the overall response covers the prompt adequately, earning a solid Band 6.0 in line with the task descriptors for addressing all parts with relevant ideas, even if some require further extension.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs dedicated to each viewpoint, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is utilised appropriately to separate contrasting ideas. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty. Transitions like 'On the other hand' and 'To conclude' are present, but referencing within and between sentences is occasionally weak, such as 'working on a place where you were trained' and vague pronoun references like 'that place'. Logical progression is maintained throughout, but the flow is disrupted by structural repetition and less sophisticated cohesive ties. These characteristics align closely with the Band 6 descriptor, where the overall arrangement is coherent, but cohesive devices can be faulty or mechanical.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common lexical items such as 'demolish the language barrier', 'infrastructure', and 'developing country'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors that occasionally detract from precision, such as 'convinient' instead of convenient, 'benifit' instead of benefit, 'oppurtunitiess' instead of opportunities, and awkward collocations like 'comfortable on providing'. Furthermore, some phrases are repetitive, such as 'working in the place of their training' and 'working in a different country'. The vocabulary is sufficient to communicate the main points clearly, but the frequency of spelling slips and minor lexical inaccuracies places this performance firmly at Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting conditional and subordinate clauses such as 'Although working on a place where you were trained will be more convinient, if a person is comfortable...'. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with subject-verb agreement ('Some people argues', 'professionals should are already be familiar'), preposition usage ('working on a place', 'comfortable on providing'), and tense consistency ('are already be aware about which common disease are most likely they are going to face'). While these errors do not impede overall communication and the reader can follow the argument, they persist throughout the text, preventing the response from achieving a higher band. This represents a typical Band 5.5 to 6.0 profile, earning a Band 6.0 for its mixed structures and acceptable communicative success despite inaccuracies.

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

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