Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-13

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)

Studying abroad plays a crucial role in one's life by giving numerous oppurtunities. All undergraduates who are doing courses in an university should have a chance to study abroad or do any work placement for a certain period of time. In this essay we will going to discuss about the benefits of this and also we will discuss if students will get more benefits than drawbacks. in my opinion, it does have more advantages than disadvantages.

Primarily, we will talk about a good impact on learner who would get a chance to spent some time in any international university during their undergraduate courses. In my prspective, it will give them a lot of exposure as well as oppurtunity to explore different cultures and places. Student will acquire more information about their specific area of study. For instance, if a student is good in research work and he gets a chance to go abroad for some time his reseach work must become more powerful by adding some international details.

If we talk about the other reason I am inclined towards this side is that if a learner gets a chance to do a wark placement at any international corporate sector besides exposure it will give him the oppurtunity to know about his abilities moreover, he can broaden his horizons by interacting with international people.

To sum up, although it might has some drawbacks like an individual has to leave his home country and he has to go out from his comfort zone but on contrary he will get plethora of experience which he might can not get in his home country that's why i also beleive that universities should add a certain period of time for students to go abroad to continue their courses or do any work placement there

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of studying abroad or doing a work placement, ultimately taking a clear position that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Ideas are presented, such as cultural exposure and professional enhancement, but they are somewhat under-developed and lack fully supported, concrete examples. For instance, the mention of research work is brief and generalised. The writer outlines their position from the introduction, fulfilling the basic requirements of Task Achievement. However, to reach a higher band, the arguments require deeper elaboration and more specific supporting details rather than relying on broad statements. Overall, the prompt is adequately addressed, aligning well with the Band 6 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a discernible progression of ideas, moving from an introduction to body paragraphs discussing academic and professional benefits, and concluding with a summary. However, cohesion is at times faulty and mechanical. The opening includes intrusive meta-language ('In this essay we will going to discuss about...'), and cohesive devices are repetitive or awkward, such as 'Primarily, we will talk about...' and 'If we talk about the other reason...'. Paragraphing is attempted, but the final paragraph is a single, run-on block of text containing multiple ideas without internal division. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and logical links between sentences can feel disjointed, which places the response securely in the Band 5 to 6 range.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'plethora of experience', 'broaden his horizons', and 'international corporate sector'. However, there are noticeable spelling errors ('oppurtunities', 'prspective', 'reseach', 'wark', 'beleive') and awkward word formations ('we will going to'). Word choice and collocation are occasionally inaccurate, such as 'good impact on learner' instead of 'positive impact on learners'. While these errors do not severely impede communication, their frequency prevents the lexical score from rising into the higher bands, making Band 5.5 an accurate reflection of the student's current control.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, though attempts at complex structures frequently contain errors. Examples of structural and tense inaccuracies include 'we will going to discuss about', 'although it might has some drawbacks', and 'which he might can not get'. Punctuation is also problematic, notably the lack of full stops or commas separating clauses in longer, run-on sentences, particularly in the conclusion. While some error-free simple sentences exist, the frequency of grammatical mistakes in complex structures causes occasional difficulty for the reader. This corresponds to the characteristics of Band 5.0.

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

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