Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-30

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 4.5)

The idea that all undergraduate students should spend time studying abroad or completing a work placement has become increasingly relevant in modern higher Although this requirements may create financial and practical difficulties, I believe it overall benefits outweigh the drawbacks.Studing abroad can expose students to learn different cultures, experiences, language barrier.They become more independent by studying abroad.They become broad-minded and perform their all task themselves.They meet different people communicate with them and explore the world languages.Work placement provides another significant advantage to the students.Many undergraduate students have to face the problem because they have just theoretical study not practically. A placement can bridge this gap by helping students to communicate with different experience person to build their confidence.This provides students more opportunities to become practical. As practical is better then the theoretical process.However it may cause problems for student to manage their finance, living area, expenses because they have to do it by themselves as they are independent so they have to do it which is very complicated for the students.But the advantages would outweigh the disadvantages. Because it builds an individual independent and provide more opportunities for student to learn and to earn by their own.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.5

The student addresses the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of studying abroad or doing a work placement, concluding that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. However, the response falls significantly short of the 250-word minimum, containing only 197 words. This under-length severely limits the development of ideas, keeping the task response incomplete and undeveloped. Phrases like 'Studing abroad can expose students to learn different cultures' touch upon relevant points, but the lack of sufficient word count and depth prevents a higher score. Consequently, this criterion is heavily penalized for length.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.0

The overall organisation is weak. The student fails to use standard paragraphing, cramming the introduction, body points, and conclusion into a single, dense block of text with missing spaces after periods, such as 'drawbacks.Studing' and 'confidence.This'. Cohesive devices are minimal, repetitive, or mechanically applied, as seen in the repeated use of 'they' and 'because'. While there is a basic logical sequence—moving from studying abroad to work placements and then disadvantages—the lack of clear paragraph breaks and effective transitions makes the progression difficult to follow.

Lexical Resource: Band 4.5

The vocabulary used is basic and repetitive, frequently relying on everyday words like 'student', 'study', 'problems', and 'practical'. There are notable word choice errors and awkward collocations, such as 'theoretical study not practically' instead of 'theoretical studies rather than practical experience', and 'explore the world languages'. Words are also misspelled, for example 'Studing'. While the vocabulary is minimally adequate to convey the basic argument, it lacks the range and precision required for higher bands.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.0

The student demonstrates a very limited range of grammatical structures, relying mostly on simple sentences joined by basic conjunctions or run-on structures. Frequent grammatical errors occur, including subject-verb agreement issues ('this requirements', 'an individual independent'), missing prepositions, and faulty relative clauses. Punctuation errors are also prevalent, particularly missing spaces after full stops and commas. These errors frequently strain the reader and reflect a weak control of sentence mechanics.

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