Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-16

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 people argue that undergraduate students should spend part of their university education studying abroad or gaining practical work experience. Although this approach can create financial and academic challenges, I believe that its benefits, particularly the development of practical skills and improved career preparation, outweigh these disadvantages.

One major benefit of this trends is that student can get real world exposure during placement time which improves the communication skills and helps to develop the professional skills. Also, it helps to boost confidence in their work as a result they can easily transist from the university to employment after their graduation. Moreover, students who goes for abroad study can take the exposure of students from different countries. Furthermore, they can expreince different teaching methods, their cultures and can able understand the world in different prespective. This leads toward the students becomes more open minded and their international exposure helps them to make their CV strong which is better for their career.

Besides this, it also have some drawbacks like these kind of programs brings financial burden to students. they have to manage budget for flights, accomodation and their living expenses which is not suitable for every students. Aditionally, this hamper the study and students feel difficulties to adapt their university course which results poor academic performance. As a result, not every students get benificial with this trends.

In conclusion, although studying abroad or completing a work placement can create financial and academic challenges, I believe that the benefits, particularly the practical experience and improved career preparation, outweigh these drawbacks.

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, and clearly states a position in the introduction and conclusion. The ideas are relevant, noting practical skills, career preparation, financial burdens, and academic disruption. However, the development of these ideas tends to be somewhat superficial and repetitive, particularly in the second paragraph where points like international exposure and communication skills are briefly listed rather than deeply extended. This places the response comfortably in the Band 6 territory, as it addresses the task fully enough to present a clear position, but the supporting arguments lack the deeper elaboration and nuanced support required for a Band 7.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay has a clear overall arrangement with an introduction, body paragraphs addressing advantages and disadvantages, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used adequately to separate main themes. However, cohesion at the sentence level is often faulty or mechanical. Phrases like 'One major benefit of this trends is that...' and 'Besides this, it also have some drawbacks...' display awkward referencing and transitional phrases. Furthermore, pronouns such as 'their' and 'this' occasionally lack clear antecedents, which disrupts the logical flow. While the overall progression of the essay is understandable, the mechanical nature of the cohesive devices and minor referencing issues keep this criterion at a Band 5.5 to 6.0 level; a score of 6.0 is awarded as communication is not seriously impeded.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'practical experience', 'financial burden', and 'international exposure'. However, there are noticeable word-choice and collocation errors throughout the response. For instance, the student writes 'this trends' instead of 'this trend', 'goes for abroad study' instead of 'studies abroad', and 'makes their CV strong' instead of 'enhances their resume'. There are also frequent pluralisation errors like 'every students' instead of 'every student'. These errors reflect a Band 6 profile, where the vocabulary is adequate to convey meaning and attempts less common words, but recurring lexical inaccuracies prevent it from reaching a Band 7.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting complex structures with relative clauses ('students who goes for abroad study') and conditional meanings. However, there are frequent grammatical errors in almost every sentence. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('student can get', 'student who goes', 'it also have', 'not every students get benificial'), incorrect verb forms ('can able understand', 'this hamper'), and spelling/word formation errors ('transist', 'expreince', 'prespective', 'accomodation', 'benificial'). Although these errors do not completely impede communication, their high frequency means that error-free sentences are in the minority, which aligns precisely with the Band 5 descriptor rather than Band 6.

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

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