Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

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

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)

The education system plays very important role in the lifestyle of everyone. Universities provide a period to do work placements, and it has a lot of benefits than demerits.

Firstly, the higher education places provide placements periods are beneficial for the student mental growth. For example, if a student is doing study in Information Technology and when the do internship period which help a lot them to learn about Kali, Linux and management date. Moreover, many job options will be available for them to bright their future and do work with more interest and gain experience. Moving further, degree in nursing also teach student to study of health of the patients as well as placements teach them to how to injection and cover the injury of the person.

However, work placements have some disadvantages, it impacts on the budget and increasing many expenses. For instance, peer have to pay extra charges for the extra gaining such as placements and experience. Furthermore, books play more role to provide overall information of each and every thing, when students do abroad study or placement they will not more value to books and copies. As well as, in this new era, students are doing more demands to their families for technology equipment like laptop, computer, tabs and electricity items etc.

To conclude, in this today era, study abroad is more demanding for students to learn new activities and gaining experience. However, it also has some expenses which makes hard for parents to pay off the bills.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both advantages and disadvantages of mandatory study abroad or work placements. However, the development of ideas is limited. While you mention benefits like mental growth and job prospects, the examples provided, such as 'Kali, Linux and management date', are somewhat unclear and lack depth. The disadvantages section is also underdeveloped, focusing on financial burdens and a perceived decrease in the value of books. To improve, you should provide more detailed explanations and logical connections between your points and the main argument. The position is clear, but the overall analysis remains superficial.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. You use some cohesive devices like 'Firstly', 'Moreover', 'However', and 'To conclude' to signal transitions. However, the flow between sentences is sometimes mechanical, and the logical progression within paragraphs is occasionally disrupted by awkward phrasing, such as the transition between the nursing example and the discussion of disadvantages. Referencing is sometimes unclear, particularly in the second paragraph where the link between 'books' and 'placements' is not fully explained. Improving the variety of linking words and ensuring each paragraph has a clear, unified focus would enhance the coherence.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks the precision and range required for higher bands. You rely on basic terms like 'important role', 'benefits', and 'demerits'. There are also instances of incorrect word choice or collocation, such as 'management date' (likely meaning database management), 'bright their future', and 'electricity items'. Some phrasing is non-idiomatic, which occasionally forces the reader to guess your meaning. To reach a higher band, focus on using more academic vocabulary and ensuring that words are used in their correct context, particularly when discussing professional or educational concepts.

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 affect the clarity of your writing. Issues include subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'degree in nursing also teach student'), missing articles, and incorrect verb forms (e.g., 'how to injection'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, with some run-on sentences and awkward phrasing. While the meaning is generally understandable, the high frequency of errors in basic grammar prevents the essay from reaching a higher band. Focusing on sentence construction and proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy will be essential for improvement.

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