Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-14

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 4.0)

Nowadays the undergraduate student in university, face with the first choice in their life.Should they finish last period in study? Or should i find a job and choose their career? The main reason why they will have doubt of their life, is many colleges and universities not support them to spent studying abroad or doing a work placement.

Spending time study abroad brings different vision in their life, may change attitude at studying also can reframe ones life. By using non-mother language everyday, meet people all over the world, share traditions, stories, special festivals. And participate in parties, travel alone, planning future road. Take meals with part time classmate, and maybe they will your life routine friends

Also is important for student doing a work placement in their final seasons, and is not rarely in Chinese campus. College will request student to do three months pre-work, in order trade for scores in their courses.

It can helps undergraduates begin consider which life that they want to choose, finding works or studying abroad,

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The response only partially addresses the prompt, touching upon the ideas of studying abroad and work placements, but fails to clearly debate whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Furthermore, the response is severely under-length, containing only 172 words compared to the mandatory 250-word minimum. This results in a heavy penalty for Task Achievement, as ideas are left extremely limited, fragmented, and under-developed. Phrases like 'Spending time study abroad brings different vision' hint at relevant points, but the lack of elaboration, an unclear stance, and failure to meet the minimum word count severely restrict the score.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0

The text demonstrates very poor paragraphing and logical organisation. The response is broken into a brief introduction, several fragmented single-sentence paragraphs, and an incomplete concluding sentence. There is a lack of clear progression, and cohesive devices are largely absent or misused. For example, starting sentences abruptly with 'Also is important' or 'It can helps' creates a disjointed flow that hinders the reader's ability to follow a coherent argument. Referencing between sentences is often unclear, placing this response at band 4.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.0

The vocabulary used is basic, repetitive, and frequently incorrect in terms of collocation and word form. Examples include 'face with the first choice', 'spent studying abroad' instead of 'spend studying abroad', and 'non-mother language' instead of 'foreign language'. The student attempts some less common terms, such as 'reframe ones life' and 'work placement', but these are marred by frequent lexical inaccuracies and non-standard phrasing that strain the reader's understanding, reflecting the band 4 descriptor.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.0

Grammatical control is weak throughout the response, featuring a very limited range of structures and frequent errors. There are numerous basic sentence construction issues, such as 'It can helps undergraduates begin consider', missing subjects ('is not rarely in Chinese campus'), and incorrect verb forms ('spending time study abroad'). Punctuation and word forms are also unreliable, with fragments posing significant difficulties for the reader and causing frequent communication breakdowns.

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

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