Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-22

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)

Some people think that it should be mandatory for all educational institute to include a semester for practical experience or spend time in studying abroad. In my opinion it has more benefits then disadvantages.

One evident benefit of spending time in aboard and doing work is exposure to their field that helps students to became more confident . Moreover, it also facilitate them in their work life because now a days, most of the companies ask for pervious work experience if a student already had knowledge it will be easy for them .Furthermore, it will also makes their life easier because they already developed problem solving skill which leads to good work performance .

on the contrary, working a full time job and going abroad can have some negative impacts in some situations. For instance ,working without complete knowledge can makes student doubt on his self esteem because he will starts to think that he is not suitable for this field also managing work with study became hectic which can cause disturb their mental health and lower their performance that makes student under confident .

overall, most of the people think getting experience and exposure is more important and only gain by interacting with people although it also helps with gaining skills life communication ,problem solving and team management and many more. On the other hand it will make will doubt their worth and disturb their mental health so, managing it and doing it with proper guidance is very important

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of including studying abroad or a work placement in undergraduate courses, and clearly states an opinion in the introduction ('In my opinion it has more benefits then disadvantages'). The position is maintained throughout the essay. However, the ideas are somewhat under-developed, particularly in the body paragraphs where points like skill development and mental health are stated rather than fully extended with specific examples. This corresponds to the Band 6 descriptor, where all parts are addressed with relevant ideas, but some are under-developed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt to structure the writing into an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used, though the conclusion is somewhat repetitive and merges several points rather than clearly summarising. Cohesive devices such as 'Moreover', 'Furthermore', and 'On the contrary' are used to signal logical relationships, but referencing is occasionally faulty, and some transitions feel mechanical. There is a lack of smooth progression in the final paragraph, where ideas become muddled. This performance aligns with Band 5.5, rounded to Band 6 for a generally coherent structure despite mechanical cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully using terms such as 'practical experience', 'exposure', 'problem solving skill', and 'mental health'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'educational institute' instead of 'institutions', 'aboard' instead of 'abroad', 'became' instead of 'become', 'pervious' instead of 'previous', and 'starts' instead of 'start'. These errors occur throughout the text, though they do not impede overall communication. The use of less common vocabulary is attempted with occasional inaccuracy, placing this firmly at Band 5.5, rounded to 6.0 for adequacy.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilising relative clauses and conditional structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with subject-verb agreement and tense consistency, such as 'working without complete knowledge can makes student doubt' and 'managing work with study became hectic which can cause disturb their mental health'. Punctuation is also problematic, with missing apostrophes ('pervious work experience' instead of 'previous', and issues with spacing around commas and full stops). These errors cause some difficulty for the reader and reflect typical Band 5 limitations in grammatical accuracy.

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.