Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

Every university should hold a period of time for a real life work placement and a foreign study exchange program in every bachelor's degree. I strongly believe that advantages of this development would completely outweigh the disadvantages.

Every foreign exchange program would help enchance ones personality, develop career goals and motivation for higher studies. For example an average student with no vision and future goals gets a chance to study abroad could get motivation for setting up a goal for his/her life by meeting different kind professionals and by looking on multiple opportunities available. Instead, it would also help in learning foreign startergies, ideas and development which will probably help student in the future.

A work placement really helps student develop professional skills. For instance in an engineering field there is a compulsion of atleast one internship during the course, which probably helps the student a lot to experience real life field work to understand the skills he/she require for a better future. Moreover, courses like engineering requires practical experiences, but in universities most of the work done is theoretical and computer based. So, a work placement will consequently help devellop practical skilks.

In my opinion, the only drawbacks would be the expense involved or the time spent for those activites could result student left behind in the studies, but if managed properly by the universities and students such as in summer breaks could overcome the problem and as far as expenses are concerned they could be outweighed by the resulting multiple advantages.

In conclusion, I would argue that the personality development and multiple future growth opportunities would probably overcome the disdvantages if time is properly manages for such activities.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both studying abroad and work placements, and clearly takes a position that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. The ideas are relevant and generally supported with examples, such as mentioning engineering internships and personal development. However, the development of ideas tends to be a bit repetitive and over-generalized in places, particularly in the second paragraph where the example of an average student is somewhat underdeveloped. The conclusion reaffirms the position clearly. Overall, the performance aligns well with Band 6.5 or a solid Band 6 descriptors for task achievement because all parts of the task are addressed and a clear position is maintained, though some ideas could be extended further.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay has a clear overall arrangement with distinct paragraphs addressing the introduction, studying abroad, work placements, counterarguments, and conclusion. Cohesive devices are used to signal transitions, such as 'For example', 'Moreover', and 'In conclusion'. However, referencing and cohesion can occasionally feel somewhat mechanical or slightly faulty, such as the transition 'Instead, it would also help...', which does not connect logically to the preceding sentence. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to structure the argument, but the logical progression between sentences within paragraphs could be smoother. This places the response comfortably in the Band 6 category.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'enhancement', 'compulsion', and 'practical experiences'. However, there are notable spelling errors ('enhance' spelled as 'enchance', 'strategies' as 'startergies', 'develop' as 'devellop', 'skills' as 'skilks', 'disadvantages' as 'disdvantages') and occasional word choice inaccuracies that slightly detract from the quality. Despite these flaws, the vocabulary used is sufficient to convey the intended meaning without impeding communication, which aligns with the Band 6 descriptor.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The writer employs a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating attempts at subordination and relative clauses, such as '...an average student with no vision and future goals gets a chance to study abroad could get motivation...'. There are, however, several grammatical errors throughout the text, including missing prepositions, articles, and awkward phrasing ('Every university should hold a period of time', 'by looking on multiple opportunities'). Punctuation and grammatical errors are noticeable but rarely impede communication, allowing the reader to follow the arguments easily. These features are characteristic of Band 6 performance.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

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