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)

Spending time on studing abroad plans or doing well a work placement should a part be academic curriculum for undergraduate courses in all higher institues of country. In my point of view this strategy can boost the employement rate of nation, having many advatages can outweigh the disadvantages. Implementing this can be challenging for state.

Career planning is still a serious issue nowadays which is faced by majority of undergraduate students. During their academics, the universities should make a compulsory periods for all students, specifically about work placement andstuding abroad. Many intellegent and talented students do know about the opportunity of studying abroad. Studying on International universitities with applicants from all over the word can provide them enough knowledge and experience of abroad living can increase their capabilities and skills. In result, they can have a better living and future. This can have some disadvatages significantly, loss of student money in case of visa refusal and waste of academic year, heavy upfront cost and sometimes emotions of family.

Moreover, work placement with a modern name intership is still a part of many courses it has its own contribution in final grades. But a work placement is completly different it is a proper full time job in indutry. The universities should have agreements with companies that they will do recrutment from their fresly graduate students every year. And students preparation should be a responsibility of institute, where they are studing for three to four years. In results, a nation can observe higher competition in job market, some time company monopolys, and some more.

In colclusion, Still we have more advantages of spending time on studying abroad or work placement during academic year. This will also do a impressive contribute in countrie's GDP with many opportunies for youth.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The candidate addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of including study abroad or work placements in undergraduate courses, and clearly states a position that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Ideas are introduced, such as boosting employment rates and gaining international experience, but many points remain under-developed or superficially supported. For instance, the discussion on disadvantages touches upon visa refusals and family emotions, but lacks elaboration. Similarly, the points regarding company monopolies lack depth. To achieve a higher band score, the candidate should extend and fully support their arguments with more detailed explanations and specific examples rather than relying on brief assertions.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, dividing the introduction, advantages, disadvantages, and conclusion into distinct sections. However, the logical progression is frequently disrupted by awkward transitions, mechanical cohesive devices, and referencing issues (e.g., 'In my point of view this strategy...', 'In result...', and 'In colclusion'). Paragraph 3 abruptly shifts between internships, university agreements, and job market competition without smooth signposting. While paragraphing is used, the internal cohesion within paragraphs lacks flexibility and smooth flow. Addressing these cohesive ties and ensuring smoother logical transitions would significantly improve the structural flow of the essay.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The candidate uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'curriculum', 'employement rate', and 'monopolys'. However, there are numerous noticeable spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'studing' for studying, 'institues' for institutes, 'advatages' for advantages, 'intellegent' for intelligent, 'universitities' for universities, 'word' for world, 'intership' for internship, 'completly' for completely, 'indutry' for industry, 'recrutment' for recruitment, 'fresly' for freshly, and 'colclusion' for conclusion. These errors do not completely impede communication, but their frequency restricts the lexical score, preventing the response from reaching a higher band level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The candidate attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some capability to handle multi-clause sentences. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, featuring frequent errors such as missing articles ('should a part be academic curriculum'), incorrect prepositions ('in indutry', 'on International universitities'), tense and word-form issues ('should make a compulsory periods', 'where they are studing'), and punctuation errors. While the meaning of most sentences can still be deciphered, the high density of structural and grammatical inaccuracies means that error-free sentences are not sufficiently frequent to achieve a Band 6.0. More careful proofreading and tighter control over basic syntax are necessary.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.