Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-29

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 5.0)

All university undergraduate degrees should include a period of time, spent studying abroad or doing a work placement. There are many advantages like students can learn high quality of education or experience and find better work opportunities in the future, but there are also have some disadvantages like learners face cultural problems and it too expensive. These is reason, I believe that advantages can outweight the disadvantages.

The main advantages is that pupil can learn high quality academic education and if they want they can find many jobs in the future. The primary reason is that In abroad have many education facilities and chances to find better and high range of salaries jobs. A good example is that In the USA have many big counpanies like Google and youtuble etc, who offer many jobs every years and also they provide to chances to intership works for their students. Therefore, if student can spent their time in abroad they have many options to grown their academic and jobs skills.

The main disadvantages is that students can face many cultural problems like languages problems and this study is too expensives. This is because majority of students cannot afford the high university fees and also they want to learn international languages like English. For instance, the USA and UK can just provide to chance of education in these country who can speak good english language, without english language skills students cannot got admission unviersties and find jobs. As a result, this proces is too expensive.

In conclusion, base these problems and benefits, I believe that advantages of this outweigh the disvantages.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of studying abroad or doing work placements, and clearly states an opinion in the introduction and conclusion. However, the ideas are under-developed and lack sufficient support. For instance, the paragraph on advantages vaguely mentions Google and YouTube in the USA as examples of companies offering jobs and internships, but this is not clearly linked back to how undergraduate courses should incorporate these elements. Similarly, the disadvantages section mentions cultural and financial problems, but the explanations are repetitive and somewhat confused, such as the claim that universities in the USA and UK 'just provide to chance of education in these country who can speak good english language.' While a clear position is maintained throughout, the lack of fully extended and supported ideas places this response firmly in Band 5.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The essay has a basic overall structure with an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion, which shows some organisation. However, there is a lack of clear progression in the body paragraphs, and ideas jump abruptly without smooth transitions. Cohesive devices are frequently inadequate, inaccurate, or overused, such as starting multiple sentences with 'The main advantages is that,' 'The primary reason is that,' and 'This is because.' Paragraphing is attempted, but the internal cohesion within paragraphs is faulty, and referencing is sometimes unclear, such as the pronoun reference in 'These is reason, I believe.' These features indicate that the response meets the Band 5 descriptors for Coherence and Cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The student uses a limited but minimally adequate range of vocabulary for the task, including topic-related terms like 'undergraduate degrees,' 'work placement,' and 'academic education.' However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward word choices throughout the text, such as 'high quality of education or experience,' 'In abroad,' 'high range of salaries jobs,' 'youtuble,' 'languages problems,' and 'expensives.' Spelling and morphological errors ('outweight,' 'intership,' 'counpanies,' 'proces') are frequent and occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader. The vocabulary is generally basic and repetitive, restricting the score to a Band 5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writing displays a very limited range of sentence structures, relying mostly on simple or faulty complex sentences. There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the response, including subject-verb agreement issues ('there are also have some disadvantages', 'the main advantages is'), tense and preposition errors ('In abroad', 'spent their time in abroad'), and structural errors in relative clauses ('companies like Google and youtuble etc, who offer...'). Furthermore, punctuation is weak, and many sentences contain structural flaws that impede readability, such as 'These is reason, I believe that advantages can outweight the disadvantages.' These persistent errors across most sentences align with the Band 5 descriptors.

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