Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-17

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)

It is said that all university undergraduate courses should include a period of time spent studying abroad or doing a work placement. This policy, although contains advantages but it might have possible disadvantages too. In this essay, i am going to explain its pros and cons.

Initially, including a period of time on studying abroad or a work placement increases creativity on students, where they can get the opportunity of learning new things and skills on works. Institutions and educational consultancties will be beneficial through this policy, where they got the chance to interact with students and they also can got the opportunity to know about the skills and intelligence level of the students. Additionally, this policy contains students to develop their skills and knowledge, where they can be self-confidence, productive and always prepare for upcoming problems during life journey. Students also got a chance to learn new skills and knowledge rather than curriculum courses.

Despite it have pros, it also have cons too. The major problem is brain drain. In developing countries like nepal, a vast number of students are travelling to abroad for higher studies, which leads to lack of knowledge people in country. Similarly, some academic programmes may not easily accommodate overseas study or work placements without extending the length of the degree. Students may also experience stress when adapting to a new country or workplace, which could temporarily affect their academic performance.

In conclusion, although students get benefits due to the policy, the drawbacks associated with the same cannot be glossed over. So, in my opinion, it would be wise enough to say that the policy should be implemented in universities,but the students must be aware with its 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 including studying abroad or work placements in undergraduate courses. A clear position is stated in the introduction and maintained through to the conclusion. The ideas presented are relevant, such as increased creativity, skill development, and potential downsides like brain drain and adjustment stress. However, some arguments remain somewhat under-developed and general, lacking deeper elaboration or specific examples to push the response into higher bands. For instance, the mention of 'brain drain' in Nepal is a good contextual point, but it is not fully expanded upon. Overall, the task is addressed adequately, fitting the Band 6 descriptors well.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, dividing the introduction, body paragraphs for pros and cons, and the conclusion logically. However, cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or faulty, such as 'Initially' and 'Despite it have pros, it also have cons too', which sound unnatural and repetitive. Referencing and transitional phrasing lack flexibility. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to separate distinct themes, but the flow between sentences within the body paragraphs occasionally feels abrupt. This meets the criteria for Band 6, where the overall structure is logical despite mechanical cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'consultancies', 'accommodate', and 'glossed over'. However, there are notable word choice and collocation inaccuracies throughout the text, such as 'contains advantages' instead of 'has advantages', 'creativity on students' instead of 'creativity in students', and 'knowledge people' instead of 'knowledgeable people' or 'skilled individuals'. While these errors do not impede overall communication, they prevent the lexical score from rising into the higher bands. The range is minimally sufficient to convey the intended meaning.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over structure. However, frequent grammatical errors are present, particularly with verb forms, subject-verb agreement, and prepositions. Examples include 'this policy, although contains advantages but it might', 'i am going' (lowercase pronoun), 'they also can got the opportunity', 'this policy contains students to', 'Despite it have pros, it also have cons too', and 'travelling to abroad'. Punctuation errors, such as missing spaces after commas, are also noticeable. These errors frequently occur and require the reader to occasionally decode the intended meaning, placing this firmly at Band 5.

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

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