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)

The undergraduate courses of every university should include at least one semester of training time spent studying in a foreign country or doing a work placement there. This will be beneficial in so many prospectives.

Spending a semester, which is about six months of time, in another country can teach a students numerous things and can also provide new experiences. It can be both, advantageous and disadvantageous. However, in my opinion the advantages will outweigh the disadvantages of it.

On one hand, the students will learn new things with a lot of international level skills in a newly environment. It will also boost the confidence level of students, with their communication skills. Spending time in another country will be beneficial not only for the educational purposes, but it will be a huge chance of the students to meet people from different communities and learn new things, such as language, food, dressing sense, etc. It will increase a sense of respect in every student, which is not very common in today's generation. Globalisation is another important point in this, as studying abroad will also creates a good relationship with other countries.

On the other hand, going to abroad for a whole semester can have some disadvantages too. Firstly, it will require a lot of money spend. Sending students in another country for six months will cost huge amount of money, which anyone will thinks twice before spending, no matter if it is funded by parents or university. Another disadvantage can be the student's grades. Not every student is a topper and sending a low graded student to abroad can be a cause of embarrassment for him and for the country too.

However, these disadvantages can be countered with the help of government. Government can provide the fund for this. Although, it has to have some minimum requirements which a student has to meet. For students who have low grade, universities can launch extra classes for them, so they can meet the minimum grade requirement and complete their degree timely.

In conclusion, including a semester abroad in undergraduate studies, will be a success in finding great minds accross the country.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student addresses all parts of the prompt, discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of including a study abroad or work placement period in undergraduate courses. A clear position is established in the introduction, stating that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, and this position is maintained throughout the essay. Ideas are extended and supported, such as discussing financial burdens and academic performance as drawbacks, and government funding or extra classes as potential solutions. However, some arguments tend to over-generalise, such as the claim about students' dressing sense or the assumption that low grades cause national embarrassment, which prevents the task response from reaching the highest band. Overall, the content is relevant, addresses the prompt effectively, and demonstrates a clear line of argument.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a logical progression of ideas. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the introduction, advantages, disadvantages, solutions, and conclusion. Cohesive devices are employed to link ideas, such as 'On one hand', 'On the other hand', and 'In conclusion'. However, referencing is sometimes faulty or mechanical, and certain transitions feel abrupt. For example, the sentence 'Globalisation is another important point in this' sits awkwardly within the paragraph without sufficient linking context. Paragraph transitions could be smoother, and referencing pronouns like 'it' are occasionally ambiguous. Despite these minor lapses, the logical structure remains clear throughout the response, ensuring the reader can easily follow the student's argument.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'globalisation', 'disadvantages', and 'work placement'. However, there are notable word choice and collocation errors throughout the response, including 'prospectives' instead of 'perspectives', 'newly environment' instead of 'new environment', 'a huge chance of the students' instead of 'a huge opportunity for students', and 'dressing sense'. Additionally, phrasing such as 'money spend' instead of 'spending money' and 'accross' demonstrate minor slips in spelling and form. While these inaccuracies do not impede overall communication, they restrict the lexical score to a Band 6, as they show limited flexibility and precision when handling more complex conceptual vocabulary.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating attempts at conditional structures and relative clauses. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly regarding prepositions, articles, and pluralisation. Examples include 'a students' instead of 'students', 'going to abroad' instead of 'going abroad', 'cost huge amount' instead of 'cost a huge amount', and 'anyone will thinks twice' instead of 'anyone will think twice'. Punctuation is generally acceptable, and basic sentences are usually clear, but complex structures frequently contain errors. Although these errors rarely impede overall communication, they occur with enough frequency to prevent the essay from achieving a higher band score under the grammatical range and accuracy criteria.

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

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