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)

Educational institiutes at becholers level should include the international study or a job experience in the cources.

To begin with , Universities including the job experience and global acedmic record mendatory for the enrolled cources can be quite beneficial as the students will have much more knowledge and global experience even before finishing their degrees like a student studing abroad would be more open to learning and will have fresh perspective of the acedmic world. It can also help students to make contacts that would help them in fucture.The job experience will also be very helpful as students would be able to understand the theory more efficiently when they will have the real on ground knowledge and experience.For instance a student who have worked for a brand social handling would be more efficient in marketing degree then a fresh student.

In contrast with all the benefits it also comes with some disadvantages which can effect the students acedmic journey like if a student who has any kind of identity or passport issue or even cannot afford a global tution fee would not be able to secure admition in favourite course.In addition not every student is always open to job market experience at early phase and this can lead upto a stressfull situation for those students.In addition it might become hard for some students to get back to studies from a real working world as it would creat a gap in consistency.For example s student working at Macdonals might not return back to studies .

I do not think that the advantages of this proposal would outshine the disadvantages at all .This could be done in a better way like a dedicated internship course for experience during summer holidays and and universities providing fully sponserd global scholorships.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The candidate addresses all parts of the task and takes a clear position that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. The main ideas are relevant and supported with explanations, such as mentioning networking benefits and practical theory application, as well as counter-arguments like financial constraints and study gaps. However, some ideas are a bit underdeveloped or over-generalized, placing the response firmly at Band 6.0 according to the criteria. The conclusion successfully summarizes the writer's stance while offering alternative solutions.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The text demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing for the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Cohesive devices and transition phrases like 'To begin with', 'In contrast', and 'In addition' are utilized, although referencing and linking can sometimes feel a bit mechanical. There is a clear logical progression throughout the essay, but occasional awkward transitions place it in the Band 6.0 category.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'perspective', 'efficient', and 'financial constraints' (implied). However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, including 'institutes', 'becholers', 'mendatory', 'fucture', 'tution', 'admition', and 'Macdonals'. These lexical errors show a limitation in control, though they rarely impede overall communication, fitting the Band 5.0 descriptors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, frequent grammatical and punctuation errors are present, including run-on sentences, missing articles, and subject-verb agreement issues (e.g., 'like if a student who has any kind of identity or passport issue or even cannot afford a global tution fee would not be able to secure admition'). While meaning is generally clear, the high frequency of errors places this criterion at Band 5.0.

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

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