Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-08-03

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

All university undergraduate courses should include a period of time spent studying abroad or doing a work placement.

Do you think the advantages of this would outweigh the disadvantages?

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

Student answer (Band 6.0)

Moving abroad to study or doing a work placement for a specific time period are some of the aspects that ought to be comprised within all universities undergraduate degrees. I believe that the proposal is highly advantageous as it could bring a number of merits in terms of gaining experience and building connections.

Nowadays, some educational institutions offer internships to students, while a few have also started study exchange programs. Firstly, achieving a degree from abroad adds great value to a student's educational background and career because individuals who travel overseas to study are usually considered to be highly qualified and more experienced due to their exceptional knowledge and discipline. Secondly, doing a job or an internship at a company while studying provides early awareness of the job market and also helps in improving the financial situation of a student to some extent. In addition, this opportunity also gives a chance to the youth to do networking by engaging and interacting with the professionals and take their advices to opt a perfect career for themselves.

Conversely, there are certain demerits of this idea as well such as high costs to study abroad. Students have to show and spend a huge amount in order to study abroad. This is because the top scholarships are highly competitive, thus only a few candidates are able to achieve them. Along with this, it is also quite difficult to secure a job at some workplace as most of the organizations are reluctant to hire unexperienced employees. This situation becomes more stressful when the aspirants have to compete for those limited seats in order to gain work experience.

In conclusion, the merits of this thought overshadow its demerits. Although studying abroad or doing work placements is really tough, in the future they play a vital role in strengthening one's career.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

You have addressed all parts of the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of mandatory study abroad or work placements. Your position is clear from the introduction and maintained throughout the essay. The ideas are relevant, such as the benefits of networking and the challenges of financial costs. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited; for instance, the point about 'improving the financial situation' of a student through internships is debatable and could have been better explained. To reach a higher band, ensure that each supporting point is fully explored with more depth and specific examples rather than just listing them.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. You use cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', 'In addition', and 'Conversely' to signal the progression of your argument. However, some of the transitions feel a bit mechanical, and the referencing is occasionally slightly awkward, such as in the phrase 'the merits of this thought'. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the advantages from the disadvantages. To improve, try to vary your cohesive devices and ensure that the flow between sentences is more natural and less reliant on simple listing markers.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'educational institutions', 'competitive', and 'aspirants'. There are some minor inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'take their advices' (advice is uncountable) and 'opt a perfect career' (usually 'choose' or 'pursue'). While you attempt to use less common vocabulary, the control is not always precise. To achieve a higher score, focus on using collocations more accurately and avoid using non-count nouns as if they were countable. Expanding your range of academic vocabulary would also be beneficial.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, which is appropriate for this level. There are some grammatical errors, such as 'universities undergraduate degrees' (should be 'university undergraduate degrees') and 'unexperienced' (should be 'inexperienced'). While these errors are noticeable, they do not impede communication. Your control of punctuation is generally good, but there are occasional slips in subject-verb agreement and word formation. To improve, focus on proofreading for small errors like pluralization and adjective prefixes, and try to incorporate a wider variety of complex sentence structures with greater accuracy.

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