Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-08-04

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people say that in the digital age, theatres and cinemas are no longer important as people can watch all the entertainment they want online. Others argue that theatres and cinemas are still important both economically and culturally.

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 4.5)

Nowadays, Most of the Indian students plan to study abroad after completing their schooling, there are few problems which they might face such as financially and also understanding or speaking the foreign language. Despite all that students still plan to go abroad, as they get better facilities, infrastructure, quality of study.

From the past few years, students plan to study in other countries after completing their 10th and choose stream accordingly, the main issue they have to face is financially as a found off that rupee is going downstream day by day and foreign countries are too expensive to even handle the basic necessity such as rent, food, travel etc. On the other hand, difficulty of understanding the new language plus their accent and way of talking is very unusual for them. Example- In India the fee structure is very less of government collages such as if we compare DU and Waikato University they have a huge difference in their study programs.

Among all of these, children still plan to go abroad as the advantages cover it all, the quality of life is different from our nation the basic requirement is fulfilled such as jobs or better education, equality, more earning, health facilities, taxes are fully used, middle class are the top priority, respect and concern about their citizens and many more which is next to impossible to get in our nation. Example- If a student have a part time job in India he or she can barely pay the rent or maximum they can afford their own expenses but the story is different on other side, if a student work in a foreign country he or she can easily pay the tuition fee+ afford their expenses by their own. As they respect and value every small job and pay according to their skills. A good amount of money is handed over to them.

Overview, there are many difficulties for studying abroad such as language barrier and also it overloads the burden over the family but, after a few months u get used to it and get a better phase of your life, especially in our early days of your life u get to learn discipline, we set the priorities according to your situation, get to know how world works, most importantly we are able to make decisions for ourselves and can differentiate between what right and wrong.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 2.0

The response is completely off-topic. The prompt asks for a discussion on the importance of theatres and cinemas in the digital age, but the essay focuses entirely on the challenges and benefits of Indian students studying abroad. Because the response fails to address the specific task instructions, it cannot be assessed on the development of the required argument. In an actual IELTS examination, this would result in a very low score for Task Achievement as the candidate has not responded to the prompt provided.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The essay is organised into paragraphs, which provides a basic structure. However, the logical progression is hindered by the fact that the content is irrelevant to the prompt. There is some use of cohesive devices such as 'On the other hand' and 'Among all of these', but these are often used incorrectly or in a way that does not effectively link the ideas. The referencing is sometimes unclear, and the flow between sentences is often disjointed, making the text difficult to follow despite the clear paragraph breaks.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary is limited and often repetitive. The student uses basic terms like 'problems', 'difficulties', and 'advantages' throughout the text. There are instances of awkward phrasing and incorrect word choices, such as 'found off that rupee is going downstream' and 'overloads the burden over the family'. While the student attempts to use some topic-specific vocabulary related to education, the range is insufficient to express complex ideas with precision. Frequent errors in collocation and word choice are present throughout the response.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede communication. Issues include subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'If a student have'), incorrect use of articles, and punctuation errors. The use of 'u' instead of 'you' is informal and inappropriate for an academic task. While the student attempts complex sentences, they are often faulty, leading to a lack of clarity. The control over grammar is inconsistent, and the frequent errors prevent the response from reaching a higher band.

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

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