Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-24

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 6.5)

All undergraduate degrees should include a compulsory semester abroad program, where capable students are sent to foreign countries to study one semester, or work placements where students are placed as an intern in successful firms, for students. This has several advantages for the students as well as the institute.

Firstly, hands-on experience of work or living abroad gives students practical exposure that cannot be acquired in classrooms. For example, a student from Pakistan, who has lived in Turkey as a foreign exchange student, will have better social and survival skills which will help them in future. The skills could include basic living tasks like cooking or cleaning, navigating new roads in a foreign city, managing routines alongside studying, et cetra.

Morever, it gives students a taste of practical life as well, which prepares them for their future while still being a student.

Furthermore, work or studying abroad greatly influences a student's social life. Meeting new people, learning about different cultural trends and norms, and practicing different kinds of ethics do not only impact their social networking, but also makes them compatible to work in different settings, with different people. In the long run, this proves to be beneficial, especially if the student plans on moving abroad.

In addition to that, this benefits the university with increasing their rank worldwide and making their students competent and eligible for prestigious jobs around the world, eventually leading up to indirect marketing.

Considering these factors, all universities should definitely include study abroad programs for their students or offer them work placements.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the advantages of studying abroad and work placements, while taking a clear stance that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. The ideas presented are generally relevant, such as the development of survival skills, enhanced social networking, and university rankings. However, some arguments lack deep extension and tend to over-generalise. For instance, the point about basic living tasks like cooking and cleaning is somewhat simplistic for undergraduate education, and the discussion on university marketing is underdeveloped. Overall, the task is successfully fulfilled, but further elaboration of the main points would be required to reach a higher band level.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The essay presents a clear overall progression from the introduction to the body paragraphs and conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct ideas, such as practical life experience in the second paragraph and social/institutional benefits in the third. Cohesive devices are employed to link sentences and paragraphs, such as 'Firstly', 'Morever' (spelled 'Moreover'), and 'Furthermore'. However, there are minor cohesion issues and occasional referencing flaws, such as the dangling phrase 'for students' in the introductory sentence, which slightly disrupts the flow. Overall, the logical organisation is evident and the progression of ideas remains easy to follow throughout the response.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for an academic task, attempting less common phrases such as 'hands-on experience', 'survival skills', and 'prestigious jobs'. There are, however, some spelling and typographical errors, such as 'Morever' instead of 'moreover' and the Latin abbreviation 'et cetra' instead of 'etc.', alongside slightly unnatural phrasing like 'gives students a taste of practical life as well'. The lexical choices are sufficient to convey the intended meaning clearly, though occasional inaccuracies in word choice and spelling prevent the response from achieving a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The essay exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating attempts at subordination and relative clauses, such as 'a student from Pakistan, who has lived in Turkey as a foreign exchange student, will have better social and survival skills...'. There are several grammatical errors and awkward phrasings present, including 'with increasing their rank worldwide' instead of 'by increasing', and punctuation or spelling lapses like 'et cetra'. Nonetheless, these errors do not impede communication, and the meaning remains clear to the reader throughout the text.

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

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