Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-15

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 popularity has increased in the recent last years specially in university undergraduate courses, which affects students' behavior with both benefits and drawbacks. The benefits that the student gain from studying abroad or doing a work placement during their university time foster their communication skills, build their personality ,facilitate and provide them with valuable job opportunities in the future. In contrast, the academical evaluation could be affected throughout this period as a result of having many tasks at the same time, also students pay more attention for practical part ignoring the theoretical one.

At first, practical part involving in the university subjects and spending time studying abroad have many advantages and great effect on students personality. One major advantage is fostering their communication and connecting skills through exposing to others' mind-sets and dealing with many different thoughts which give them the ability to handle different situations and manage various problems.

Another benefit is facilitating their work chances in the future, for instance, improving their skills and exposed them to the job market help in CV development.

On the other hand, The main drawback is that undergraduates became more interested in the practical side in the expense of the academical side which affect their grads and lead to evaluation degradation by the way, for example, those trainees seek for profit during their study period rather than learning, which can block the gradual process of their academic and professional improvement.

In conclusion, Although studying abroad and exerting more efforts in the practical part help students to gain experience and improve their personality, connection, working skills and professional aspects, it also may affect their academic grads through paying attention for practical side only. Overall, I believe that both sides need to have equal interest and the students should balance their time between studying and training or studying abroad to build their CV efficiently.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of studying abroad or doing a work placement during an undergraduate degree, ultimately presenting a clear position. The introduction outlines benefits such as improved communication skills and job opportunities, along with drawbacks like academic distraction. The body paragraphs expand upon these ideas, mentioning how practical experience fosters problem-solving skills and boosts CV development, while also noting that students might prioritize profit or practical tasks over academics, harming their grades. However, some ideas feel slightly repetitive or under-developed, aligning best with a Band 6.0 where all parts are addressed with relevant ideas, but certain sections lack full extension or depth.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a generally coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt at paragraphing, moving from an introduction to body paragraphs discussing advantages and disadvantages, and concluding with a summary and personal stance. Cohesive devices are employed, such as 'In contrast,' 'At first,' 'Another benefit,' and 'On the other hand.' However, cohesion is at times mechanical or slightly faulty, and referencing is not always clear, as seen in phrases like 'by the way' or awkward transition phrases. Paragraphing is present, but internal logical progression within the paragraphs occasionally stumbles due to phrasing issues, matching the criteria for Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'undergraduate,' 'academical evaluation,' 'mind-sets,' and 'degradation.' However, there are noticeable inaccuracies in word choice, collocation, and word formation, such as 'in the recent last years,' 'academical' instead of 'academic,' 'work chances' instead of 'employment opportunities,' 'grads' instead of 'grades,' and 'connection' in the context of networking. These vocabulary and spelling errors do not seriously impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score to a Band 5.5 or 6.0. Given the frequency of non-standard collocations, a Band 5.5 accurately reflects the balance of adequate range and persistent lexical errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The text contains a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, though complex structures frequently contain errors or awkward phrasing. Examples include 'The benefits that the student gain... foster...' (subject-verb agreement error), 'through exposing to others' mind-sets' (preposition and voice issues), and 'undergraduates became more interested... in the expense of' (tense and idiom errors). Punctuation and capitalization errors also appear, such as unnecessary capitalization after commas or missing spaces before commas. While these errors do not completely block understanding, they are frequent enough to prevent the writing from reaching Band 6.0 fully, placing it firmly at a Band 5.5 due to the noticeable frequency of grammatical slips.

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