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)
It has to say that every universities undergraduate courses should add some amount of time to utilize knowing about studing foreign country also having time for part time job.Although adding extra period is harm the academic time, I reckon advantages outweight the disadvantages.
Adding extra time into university study can reduce the academic activities because focus of academic lecture will diverd. Students who are study for good great in their academic life it will fall as they foucus others matter rather than academic study. For example, in Asian country undergraduates student often take retake their academic courese since the spent more time for doing others non academic work.However, extra period for non-academic activities less beneficial for student, but time for learning about post graduate study and part time job have great impact in long run of students life.
In contrast, including amount of time for knowing higher study it creat significant impact on student life as they gether knowledge about the process of going abroad. It will help them to know about how to apply for scholorship and it make different in their post-graduation stage. For instance, every year from all over the world student apply for scholorship and they get the opportunity to going abroad without cost. It make a crucial impact on indivisual who are came from middle-class family.
In conclusion, though having extra period in undergraduate courses destry the academic focus but it make impect on student life who want to complet post graduate study in aborad with scholorship. That is why i think the advantages outweight the disadvantages.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0
The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of including studying abroad or work placements in undergraduate courses, and presents a clear position that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Ideas are relevant, focusing on academic distraction versus post-graduate and career benefits. However, the development of these ideas is limited and somewhat repetitive, particularly regarding scholarships and studying abroad. For instance, the mention of students taking retakes due to non-academic work illustrates a disadvantage, but the reasoning remains basic. Because the ideas are presented without sufficient extension and support, this performance aligns most closely with Band 5.5 to 6.0 descriptors, specifically fitting Band 6 due to addressing all parts of the prompt with relevant, albeit slightly under-developed, ideas.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0
The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs addressing opposing views, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to separate distinct ideas. However, cohesion is frequently faulty and mechanical. The student relies on basic transitional phrases like 'In contrast' and 'In conclusion,' but cohesive referencing is often unclear or awkward, such as 'It has to say that' and 'It make a crucial impact on indivisual who are came from middle-class family.' Furthermore, pronoun referencing can be ambiguous, and the logical progression between sentences occasionally falters due to grammatical interference. These features reflect the characteristics of Band 5.0.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the student to communicate basic arguments about university courses and studying abroad. However, there is a limited range with frequent errors in word choice, spelling, and collocation. Examples include 'studing' instead of studying, 'great' instead of grades, 'diverd' instead of diverted, 'courese' instead of courses, 'gether' instead of gather, 'scholorship' instead of scholarship, 'destry' instead of destroy, and 'aborad' instead of abroad. Less common lexical items are attempted, but inaccuracies are noticeable and occasionally cause slight difficulty for the reader, which places this response securely at Band 5.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'Although adding extra period is harm the academic time, I reckon advantages outweight the disadvantages.' However, control over grammar is weak, featuring frequent errors such as subject-verb agreement issues ('every universities undergraduate courses should'), incorrect verb forms ('is harm' instead of harms), missing articles, and tense inconsistencies. Punctuation errors are also present, and the frequency of grammatical mistakes means that error-free sentences are rare. These limitations are characteristic of Band 5.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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