Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-28

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 6.0)

It is often argued that undergraduate courses should include a period of time spent studying abroad or completing a work placement. Although this may have lot of disadvantages but i believe advantages of this would outweigh the disadvantages.

Firstly let's look the positive sides of this giving opportunity to the undergraduate students a period of time spent studying abroad help students to broden their horizons and develop new cultural awareness. by living another country they will enhance the new practical skills and techniques in addition it will also essential fo their studies. they will get the new career options and build professional networks.

Also living on their own basis creates independance.

During this time period they also get a proper time to explore more about their courses which leads to create a roadmap for their post-graduation.

On the other hand it also have some negative impacts. Some students feel financial burden due to sudden long travel. Futhermore abroad studies also need additional expenses which is not convenient for some students. The major disadvantage is cultural differences and language barriers which creates lots of problems during interactions. Mostly it invest most of the time during studies some students feel homesickness when academic pressure and sudden isolation hit. A work placement may also reduce the time available for academic study and could increase students overall workload.

Despite these drawbacks, i believe that the long term benifits are more significant. The practical skills, independence and international experience gained through these opportunities can give students an advantage.i believe that benefits for improving carrer outweigh the disadvantages.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of studying abroad or doing a work placement, and clearly states an overall position that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Ideas such as cultural awareness, independence, financial burdens, and language barriers are introduced, but many of them are underdeveloped and lack specific examples or detailed extension. For instance, the discussion of career options and networking is superficial. Furthermore, there is a tendency to overgeneralise without sufficient backing. According to the band descriptors, this performance aligns best with Band 6, as all parts are addressed with relevant ideas, but some remain under-developed or inadequately supported.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay has a coherent overall arrangement, featuring an introduction, body paragraphs for both sides, and a conclusion. However, paragraphing is poorly handled; the second body paragraph attempting to list multiple advantages is excessively dense, and sentences are crammed together without appropriate breaks or smooth transitions. Cohesive devices are sometimes faulty, mechanical, or completely missing between ideas (e.g., 'Also living on their own basis creates independance'). Referencing is occasionally unclear, such as the pronoun 'Mostly it invest most of the time during studies', which obscures the intended meaning. These structural weaknesses and mechanical transitions place the response securely at Band 5.5.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms such as 'undergraduate courses', 'cultural awareness', 'professional networks', and 'homesickness'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors, including 'broden' instead of broaden, 'independance', 'benifits', and 'carrer'. Attempts to use less common vocabulary are sometimes awkward or imprecise, such as 'sudden long travel' and 'living on their own basis'. While communication is not severely impeded, these repeated lexical errors and spelling mistakes prevent the response from achieving a higher band, making Band 6.0 the most suitable score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting complex structures with subordinate clauses (e.g., 'Although this may have lot of disadvantages but i believe...'). However, grammatical accuracy is weak, featuring frequent errors such as missing articles ('have lot of disadvantages', 'living another country'), subject-verb agreement issues ('this also have some negative impacts'), incorrect punctuation (lack of capitalisation for 'i'), and dangling modifiers ('when academic pressure and sudden isolation hit'). While these errors rarely completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to preclude a Band 6.0, as the majority of sentences contain inaccuracies or awkward phrasing. Therefore, a Band 5.5 is awarded.

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