Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-20

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)

In recent years, studying abroad or doing a work placement during the undergraduate courses has become increasingly common, while this development has offers certain advantages, it also has some notable drawbacks. This essay will examine both sides of the issue before arguing that advantages of studying abroad or work placement outweigh its disadvantages.

There are several significant advantages associated with foreign study and workplacement during undergraduate course. The most prominent one is that by working during the studies they can able to get the practical knowledge of particular field instead of theories, moreover, studying abroad is the dream of several student because in abroad country like Australia provide significant job opportunities during the course, which help them to earn good amount of money during the study. Another notable benefit is they become mature and self managed. For instance, it help to improve the problem tackling ability of student

However, it also has some drawbacks. One major concern is that not all students are financially satisfactory to bear the expenses for foreign studies and their living accommodation. Meanwhile, Adoption to a new environment can also be a major challenge for student. In addition, language barrier is another drawback for foreign education. Moreover, working during the course can break flow of study and lead to backlog.

In conclusion, although education in foreign and internship can lead to few disadvantages, I believe that its advantages particularly great job opportunities in foreign and gaining experience in a interested field, are more substantial. Therefore, the benefits of this development outweigh its drawbacks.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of including studying abroad or a work placement in undergraduate courses, and presents a clear position throughout. The writer's ideas are relevant, noting practical knowledge and maturity as benefits, alongside financial and adjustment challenges as drawbacks. However, these ideas are somewhat under-developed and lack extended specific examples. For instance, the statement 'in abroad country like Australia provide significant job opportunities' lacks elaboration, and the examples given are overly brief (e.g., 'it help to improve the problem tackling ability of student'). This places the response comfortably at Band 6, as it addresses the prompt adequately but needs deeper elaboration and more fully realised examples to reach Band 7.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay has a coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical structure with an introduction, body paragraphs addressing both sides, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to separate distinct ideas, such as the advantages and disadvantages. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. The writer relies on basic cohesive devices like 'moreover', 'another notable benefit is', and 'in addition', and there are instances of clunky transitional phrases (e.g., 'while this development has offers certain advantages, it also has some notable drawbacks', which results in a run-on sentence). Referencing is generally clear, but the overall flow is occasionally disrupted by awkward phrasing. This matches the Band 6 descriptor where cohesion is sometimes mechanical.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting some less common lexical items such as 'undergraduate courses', 'practical knowledge', and 'backlog'. However, there are notable lexical and collocational errors throughout the text. For example, the writer uses 'financially satisfactory' instead of 'financially stable', 'Adoption to a new environment' instead of 'Adapting to a new environment', and 'in abroad country' instead of 'foreign countries like Australia'. Additionally, there are awkward word choices like 'an interested field' instead of 'a field of interest'. These errors do not impede communication, allowing the reader to follow the argument, but the frequency of word-choice inaccuracies keeps the score at Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures such as conditional and participial clauses (e.g., 'by working during the studies they can able to get'). However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in verb forms, prepositions, and agreement. Examples include 'this development has offers', 'several student' (missing plural), 'education in foreign and internship can lead to few disadvantages', and sentence boundary issues such as comma splices ('while this development has offers...'). Although these errors rarely completely impede communication, they occur with high frequency and impact the overall readability of the text, fitting the Band 5 descriptor where frequent errors in grammar cause some difficulty.

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

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