Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-08

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 6.5)

It is often suggested that universities should include a period of time spent studying abroad or doing a work placement for all the undergraduate courses students. I personally believe it has numerous advantages like student can gain work experience and acquire effective communication skills. Hence, it merits easily outweight its drawbacks.

There are numerouse advantages of spending some time abroad or doing a work placement. Firstly, student can gain work experience which became beneficial for their future employment. If universities encourages students to do a work placement with the education, student can gain practical experience and develop interpersonal skills, such as effective communication and cooperation. A clear example to prove my stance, many multi-national companies offers a work opportunity for students from their university times and after their training period students are provided with the certificate and experiences.Moreover companies often offer salaries so that student can manage their living expense independently. Consequently, this experience acts as a catalyst to find jobs after completing the course. Therefore, a university should definitely include a time for a work placement.

Despise the benefits, it has some notable disadvantages. To begins with, work placement may distract the students from their academic subjects. It may leads to drop in their academic performance. To cite an example, if students do work they may surround with other prior commitments then their studies, which creates a pressure on learners and they find it difficult to maintain balance between study and work. As a result, they may gave up. Therefore, it creates a burden and unnecessary pressure on learners.

In conclusion, although work placement distract the students and create workloads, it provide them with valuable experience and skills, which is beneficial in their future growth. So, in my opinion it's advantages easily outweigh the disadvantages.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, providing a clear position that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. The ideas are relevant, such as gaining work experience and developing interpersonal skills. However, the development is somewhat uneven. While the benefits are well-supported with examples of multi-national companies, the discussion of disadvantages is less detailed and relies on generalisations about academic pressure. To reach a higher band, the student should ensure that both sides of the argument are explored with equal depth and nuance. The conclusion effectively restates the position, ensuring the response remains focused on the prompt throughout.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is logically organized into clear paragraphs, each with a central theme. Cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'Moreover', 'Consequently', and 'In conclusion' are used to guide the reader through the argument. However, there are instances where the flow is slightly mechanical, and some transitions feel repetitive. Additionally, referencing is occasionally imprecise, such as in the phrase 'it has some notable disadvantages', where the antecedent is slightly ambiguous. Despite these minor issues, the progression of ideas is clear, and the paragraphing is appropriate for the task, meeting the requirements for a band 6.5 or 7.0 structure.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, including terms like 'interpersonal skills', 'catalyst', and 'multi-national'. However, there are several spelling errors ('numerouse', 'Despise' instead of 'Despite') and minor collocation issues ('merits easily outweight' instead of 'benefits outweigh'). While the vocabulary is sufficient to convey meaning clearly, the lack of precision and the presence of spelling errors prevent a higher score. To improve, the student should focus on refining word choices and proofreading for common spelling mistakes to ensure a more professional and academic tone.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally distract the reader. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('student can gain', 'universities encourages', 'companies offers') and tense inconsistencies ('they may gave up'). Punctuation is generally functional, but the sentence construction often lacks the polish required for higher bands. While the meaning is always clear, the frequency of these errors indicates a need for more careful attention to basic grammatical rules, particularly regarding pluralization and verb forms, to achieve a more consistent level of accuracy.

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

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