Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-12

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)

Many countries in the world make it mandatory in underdraduate programs to study abroad or doing a work placement.

This has many pros where the student could have potential life changing benefits. Tgey begin to live life independently and are given exposure to an unfamiliar nation and its culture. This brings out and polishes the qualities of the student making him learn to adapt and work on himself where he is not comfortable. Student tend to deal with pressures of balancing their daily life and curriculum. This enhances their ability of problem solving. Students also experience different environments and opportunities to setup their lives.

On the other hand it is economically very hard for governments and academic institutions to fund it. Not only is it not feasible once the student goes abroad they start to look to settle their and not return which makes them an asset for the residing country. This is a program that requires monumental funding and alot of resources. In my country programs like these are almost non exsistent. Even if a student has to go abroad to seek better opportunities he or she has to do this from provate funding rather than other sources.

In my opinion work should be done in this regard and students should have the opportunity to fulfill their potentials by diversifying and increasing their base of knowledge and benefits them. This imporves the depth of qualities to a student and also gives them time to work and improve on their shortcomings.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of making study abroad or work placements mandatory in undergraduate programs. The student takes a clear position in the conclusion, arguing that such programs provide life-changing benefits and should be encouraged, despite economic challenges. Ideas are generally relevant, such as fostering independence, problem-solving, and economic burdens on governments, but some points lack deeper extension and development. For instance, the discussion on students settling abroad is introduced as a disadvantage but is not fully explored. Nevertheless, the main task requirements are met with a recognizable position and supporting arguments, fitting the Band 6 descriptor well.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear separation of paragraphs addressing advantages, disadvantages, and the writer's opinion. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. For example, sentences within paragraphs can feel disjointed due to abrupt transitions, and referencing is occasionally unclear, such as 'This is a program' where the antecedent is slightly ambiguous. Paragraphing is present and generally appropriate, but logical progression between ideas could be smoother. Transitional markers between paragraphs are minimal, leading to a somewhat choppy reading experience that aligns with Band 6 characteristics.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, with attempts at less common phrasing such as 'life changing benefits', 'monumental funding', and 'diversifying and increasing their base of knowledge'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors, including 'underdraduate' for undergraduate, 'Tgey' for They, 'settle their' for settle there, 'provate' for private, and 'imporves' for improves. These errors do not seriously impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score to Band 5.0 because the range of vocabulary remains somewhat limited and repetitive with frequent slips.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some variety in structure with clauses introduced by 'where' and 'even if'. However, there are frequent grammatical and punctuation errors throughout the text, such as missing commas, incorrect verb forms ('Student tend to' instead of Students tend to), and awkward phrasing ('doing a work placement' contrasted with 'to study abroad'). While the meaning is generally retrievable and communication is rarely completely impeded, the high frequency of errors prevents the writing from reaching a higher band level, making a Band 5.0 score appropriate.

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

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