Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

There is an ongoing debate about whether all university bachelor courses should give specific period of time studying abroad or doing some practical work experience. This essay will examine the both advantages and disadvantages.

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On the one hand, studying abroad has a lot of advantages. First, when student go to another country for studying or improving themself. They have a chance to learn and explore the traditions and heritage of different countries which give them knowledge about world.Moreover, they learn about different languages which makes them better communicator.For instance, when a university student take their ADP course in another country.They have more knowledge instead of these students who learn and teach in their own country. Therefore all university should encourage student to take their specific time period studying abroad.

Subsequently, studying abroad has some disadvantageous. One of them is that students have to stay away from their families and friends. They have to face all the difficulties alone far from their blood relations and motherland. Secondly, sometimes students gets traumatize because of hectic and tough lifestyle. Furthermore, they found difficulty in learning languages and making bond with people who belongs to different regions. To illustrate, when a student within an age of 19 go far away from their family .This will be very difficult for him to make their pace alone .

In conclusion, although living far from the family creat truma and difficulties .However, it make them to learn and fail every difficulty bravely and give them a better career and bright future.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The student addresses the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of studying abroad or doing a work placement, attempting to give reasons and examples. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive. For instance, the discussion on advantages touches upon cultural exploration and language learning, but the examples provided, such as taking an ADP course, are vague and lack full elaboration. Similarly, the disadvantages focus heavily on homesickness and stress, but the expression remains generalised. The position is outlined in the introduction and sustained through to the conclusion, meeting the core requirements of Band 6. To reach a higher band, the student needs to extend their arguments with more specific, well-developed examples and avoid superficial generalisations.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response presents an overall coherent arrangement with clear organizational markers such as On the one hand and In conclusion, which guide the reader through the text. Paragraphing is attempted, with distinct sections for advantages and disadvantages, though there is a stray floating character o at the beginning that disrupts the layout. Cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or faulty, as seen in repetitive sentence structures and occasional awkward transitions. For example, the sentence To illustrate, when a student within an age of 19 go far away from their family .This will be very difficult for him to make their pace alone displays poor punctuation and referencing. Pronoun agreement is also inconsistent. Overall, the logical progression is apparent, fitting the criteria for Band 5.5 to 6.0, and is best placed at 5.5 due to mechanical cohesion issues.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the student to communicate basic ideas about studying abroad, such as traditions and heritage, communication, and career. However, the range is quite limited and repetitive. There are frequent word choice and collocation errors, such as give specific period instead of spend a specific period, gets traumatize instead of become traumatized, and creat truma instead of create trauma. Furthermore, spelling errors like truma and grammatical word-form mistakes like disadvantageous instead of disadvantages occur throughout the text. While meaning is generally conveyed, the lexical limitations and inaccuracies keep the response firmly at Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but grammatical accuracy is weak throughout the response. There are frequent errors in subject-verb agreement (e.g., student go instead of students go, they found instead of they find), incorrect verb tenses, and sentence fragments (e.g., For instance, when a university student take their ADP course in another country.They have more...). Punctuation is also problematic, with missing commas after introductory clauses and fragmented sentences. Although some complex structures are attempted, they are often faulty and require effort from the reader to parse. These persistent errors across most sentences place the response at a Band 5.0.

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