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)

The university undergraduate courses are all professional studies. Hence, It should be mandatory to include a period of time spent studying abroad or doing work placement. This initiative could ultimately reward the students as soon as they graduate and enter into the real world with this practical experience that they already had.

During the undergraduation courses in the universities it is more about the books and the theory but, the real world requires experience over theory. Therefore, I strongly believe that this idea could help students a lot in the long run as they would, to some extent, have an exposure already before they jump onto land their very first job. Including a period of work placement in the undergraduate courses could also help students be more agile and be more confident with their employeers. The very basic issue that the students face as fresh graduate looking for a job that they really don't know what the market is currently offering for their perticular role.

It is also equally important to be focused on the core subjects and gain the highest achiveable scores becuase, I have known so many companies that have the strict criteria that those company only hire the students who have the required minimum CGPA in order to be eligible to apply for a specific opportunity in that company. The main disadvantage that I see in this case is the student loosing an interest in the academic and eventually ending up not completing his/her degree.

In my openion, it is equally important to have both side by side going on as the world has progressed so much and demands an individual to be more agile and adaptive in working with the core team members, stake holders and other functional teams.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing the advantages and disadvantages of including studying abroad or work placements in undergraduate courses, thereby establishing a clear position. However, the development of ideas remains somewhat superficial. For example, the student mentions that fresh graduates struggle because they do not know market offerings, but this point is not fully extended or supported with concrete examples. Similarly, the counterargument regarding academic focus and CGPA criteria is introduced briefly in paragraph three but lacks depth. The discussion tends to over-generalise rather than fully elaborate on both sides of the debate. Overall, the response meets the baseline requirements for addressing all parts of the task, fitting best into the Band 6 descriptor.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a discernible progression of ideas across paragraphs. Paragraphs are used to separate distinct thoughts, such as the general benefits of practical experience, the challenges faced by fresh graduates, and the counterarguments related to academic focus. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. For instance, the transition 'During the undergraduation courses in the universities it is more about the books and the theory but, the real world requires...' is awkward and uses commas incorrectly. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and logical links between sentences can feel abrupt, which restricts the coherence score to Band 6.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'professional studies', 'mandatory', 'agile', and 'adaptive'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'undergraduation' instead of 'undergraduate', 'employeers' instead of 'employers', 'perticular' instead of 'particular', 'achiveable' instead of 'achievable', 'becuase' instead of 'because', 'loosing' instead of 'losing', and 'openion' instead of 'opinion'. While these errors do not severely impede overall communication, their frequency prevents the vocabulary from reaching the Band 7 threshold. Therefore, a Band 6 is appropriate for lexical resource.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over sentence structure with clauses linked by words like 'Hence', 'Therefore', and 'because'. However, frequent grammatical errors and punctuation flaws persist throughout the response. Examples include 'The university undergraduate courses are all professional studies. Hence, It should be mandatory...' (incorrect capitalization and phrasing), 'that they already had' (tense mismatch), and run-on structures like 'The very basic issue that the students face as fresh graduate looking for a job that they really don't know what the market is currently offering'. These errors require the reader to occasionally pause, placing the grammar firmly in the Band 5 category.

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

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