Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

People argue that every university bachelor's degree should require a amount of time studying in an another country or work as an intern in their related course. I clearly think that these have many benefits which would surpass the drawbacks and i support it.

universities making compulsory of spending some period of time in studying abroad or working as a intern do have significant reasons for it. one of them includes gaining a professional experience before even starting your degree. This makes a person understand a specific course he is applying for abroad and help him academically. for example a student applying for areospace engineering bachelors course in some university will initailly study it and understand the fundemental concepts or maybe just get some experience at an aerospace company. consequently it will make students proficient in it. while they will have some basic skills and advanced knowledge before even beginning with courses.

In contrast, it do have some negative aspects which include the biggest one so far. It is that studying abroad or doing a work placement could be an excessive financial load on students. As students my have to pay extra for their internship or study program they get, while not just this but also pay for their accommodation, living and food expenses etc in a foreign country which is quite stressfull for students and their family itself too. For instance a student may require to spend a samester abraod before applying to a undergraduate course, however their family is not able to provide the additional financial amount required for accomcodation and travel expenses. As a result this requirement would be unfair to the students who cannot pay enough funds to just complete their degree and they may even go in dept.

in conclusion, this requirement has some huge benfits overall but require enough finance to support it which is a drawback too because it can be stressing for some students. although this requirment should be onyl made for those higher financial students who can genuinely support their expenses, while universities should make some discounts or give scholarships to those students who cant afford that studying abroad part and sponser it for them so they also avail these chances.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The student addresses all parts of the task, presenting a clear position throughout the response that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Ideas are extended and supported, such as discussing professional experience and financial burdens. However, there is a tendency to over-generalise in parts, and the development of some arguments remains somewhat simplistic, such as the assumption that internships can happen prior to a bachelor course. The overall position is clearly stated in the introduction and reinforced in the conclusion, fitting the Band 6 or Band 7 criteria well, but leans towards Band 6 due to the occasional under-development of supporting examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The text displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, including an introduction, body paragraphs for advantages and disadvantages, and a conclusion. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. There are numerous missing capitalization errors at the beginning of sentences (e.g., 'universities making compulsory...', 'one of them includes...', 'in conclusion...'). Cohesive devices are used, but referencing is occasionally unclear, and logical links between sentences can feel disjointed. Overall organization is present, but mechanical flaws in punctuation and cohesion keep this at Band 6.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'professional experience', 'fundemental concepts' (with a spelling error), and 'financial load'. However, there are noticeable word-choice and spelling errors ('areospace' instead of aerospace, 'initailly', 'samester', 'abraod', 'accomcodation', 'dept' instead of debt). While these errors do not severely impede communication, they demonstrate frequent inaccuracies in spelling and collocation, placing the lexical control firmly at Band 5.5, rounded to Band 6.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response shows a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'While they will have some basic skills and advanced knowledge before even beginning with courses.' However, there are frequent grammatical errors, including article misuse ('require a amount'), preposition errors ('work as an intern in their related course'), pronoun case ('i support it'), and capitalization/punctuation issues throughout. Complex sentences often contain errors or awkward phrasing. The density of grammatical slips and punctuation failures prevents the score from reaching a Band 6.

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