Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-08-04

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 5.5)

Most of the universities in the world have included internship and research projects in their curriculum for all undergrad students. Although this activities can lower students's interest in studies, I believe the benefits outweighs the disadvantages because student gets an opportunities to work on real life problem statement with various industrial experts.

The main disadvantage of doing an work placement is that student gets motivated by the stipend and develop a feeling to start their own business. Once a student starts earning, there interest in studies eventually drops and now they attend classes, just for the sake of attendance. For instance, In India about 25% of students drop-out every year to start their own business. However, I believe apart from money students learns to integrate their knowledge to solve real world problems.

The main advantage of doing an internship is that students gets an opportunity to work on a use-case that solves end customers' problem. Additionally students can transform their theoretical knowledge into practical a use case. For example, every year Google hires college undergrads in their research development team and in this students gets an opportunities to interact with research scientist, who are working on to developed a solution that ease people's life. This types of program helps students to build network, along with this it helps them to understand how a theoretical concept is converted into real world solution.

In conclusion, although earning and working at a young age would be a short term disadvantage but in a longer run working on a real life practical solution would be an great opportunity for students.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, presenting a clear position that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. The ideas are relevant and supported by examples, such as the mention of Google's internship programs. However, the development is somewhat uneven; the argument regarding the disadvantage (students dropping out to start businesses) is a bit narrow and could have been expanded to discuss the broader impact on academic focus. While the position is consistent, the depth of analysis is limited, keeping it at a solid level where the main points are clear but not fully explored in a sophisticated manner.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, each with a clear central topic. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'However', 'Additionally', and 'In conclusion', which help guide the reader through the argument. However, there are some instances where the flow is slightly mechanical or repetitive, and some referencing is slightly awkward (e.g., 'This types of program'). Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion, which provides a clear overall progression of ideas throughout the text.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The range of vocabulary is adequate for the task. You use some topic-specific terms like 'curriculum', 'stipend', and 'theoretical knowledge'. However, there are several word-choice errors and awkward collocations, such as 'this activities' (should be 'these activities'), 'an work placement' (should be 'a work placement'), and 'developed a solution' (should be 'develop a solution'). These errors do not impede communication, but they indicate a need for more precision in word forms and articles to reach a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with subject-verb agreement ('benefits outweighs', 'student gets', 'there interest') and article usage ('an work placement', 'an opportunities'). Punctuation is generally functional, but the frequency of these minor errors prevents the writing from being considered highly accurate. To improve, focus on proofreading for basic agreement and pluralization, as these errors occur consistently throughout the response.

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

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