Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · 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 4.0)

Some people belive that good university shoold be include a period of time spent studying abroad or doing work placement to have some experince, And for me i think id agood idea and a have a lot of benifit while also it could be have some desadvantages for studant.

Win you will going to have a priod studing time abroad you will learn such thing like gane knowlege and experience wihe people, learn how to have conversaition with other person with different culture also improve education stondards , and work placement can provided develope practical ability and acquire new skills , as well can prepare people for the really work palce.

But it also have some disadvantages like t can be expensive for some people that have financial diffeculties and the will going to finde differente culture and they find ther hard to adapte.

and for my opnine i think its a good experince to learn and discorve how ousaeted world work and to be indepandate

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

The response attempts to address the prompt by discussing the advantages and disadvantages of including studying abroad or work placements in undergraduate courses. A basic position is stated ('i think id agood idea and a have a lot of benifit'). However, the ideas are severely limited and under-developed due to the very short length of the text. Crucially, the response is only 166 words long, failing to meet the minimum requirement of 250 words. This under-length impacts the overall development and depth of the task response. Consequently, the score for Task Achievement is capped at Band 4.0 because the response addresses the task only partially and lacks the necessary extension and support of ideas expected in an Academic Task 2 essay.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.0

The text suffers from a lack of proper paragraphing and structural organization. It consists of four run-on sentences that form a single block of text or poorly separated thoughts without clear logical progression. Cohesive devices are either missing, inadequate, or repetitive, such as the frequent use of 'and' to join disparate ideas. For instance, the transition from discussing advantages to disadvantages is abrupt, appearing as 'But it also have some disadvantages...' without adequate signaling or formal structure. Referencing is also sometimes unclear, making it difficult to follow the logical flow of arguments. Based on these issues with overall organization and cohesive devices, the response aligns with Band 4.0 descriptors for Coherence and Cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 4.0

The vocabulary used is basic, repetitive, and heavily constrained. The student employs simple words and phrases such as 'good experince', 'different culture', and 'expensive'. There are numerous severe spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'belive', 'shoold', 'experince', 'id agood idea', 'benifit', 'desadvantages', 'studant', 'stondards', 'develope', 'really work palce', 'diffeculties', 'adapte', 'opnine', 'discorve', 'ousaeted', and 'indepandate'. These frequent lexical errors and limited vocabulary strain the reader and obscure meaning in several places, fitting the Band 4.0 descriptor where vocabulary is basic and errors impede clear understanding.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.0

The grammatical range is very limited, relying primarily on simple sentence structures and failed attempts at complex sentences. Almost every sentence contains multiple major grammatical errors. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('good university shoold be include'), incorrect auxiliary verb usage ('you will going to have'), missing articles ('have a lot of benifit'), and faulty tense or clause construction ('Win you will going to have a priod studing time abroad'). Punctuation is also poorly handled, with run-on sentences and a lack of proper capitalization. Because errors are frequent, systematic, and cause significant difficulty for the reader, the grammar performance corresponds to a Band 4.0 score.

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

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