Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-01

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)

All university undergraduate courses should be inclusive of time spent studying in another country or working in corporate. I think that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. This is primarily because this will allow the students to gain hands-on experience in the industry and explore the course from a different perspective.

When an undergraduate program would include hours that a student is required to spend doing a work placement, it would become obligatory for the students. When doing a work placement, students will get professional experience. They will get a chance to apply what they have studied in class to real life scenarios and would also get the opportunity to interact with industry experts. For example, a course like Software Requirement Engineering is mostly just theory. Therefore, students often get bored and lose interest. However, if they were obligated to doing a related work placement; they would understand how fundamental this step is.

Studying the same undergraduate course abroad will provide an opportunity to students to learn the course from a different perspective. Every professor and university has its own methods, rules and obligations. Students will get a chance to study from different professors and will get to learn something new. Studying abroad would also allow students to learn the same course through different techniques. For example, every university specialized in one course or degree. If students could travel abroad they would get to learn a course from the best professors in the world.

In conlusion, I believe that including a period of time spent studying abroad or doing work placement would prove to be very fruitful. This is because students will get an opportunity to get corporate experience and explore the same course from a different angle abroad.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task and presents a clear position that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Relevant ideas are introduced regarding professional experience and alternative educational perspectives. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others. For instance, the paragraph on work placements provides a specific example about Software Requirement Engineering courses, whereas the paragraph on studying abroad relies more on general assertions about different teaching methods without a concrete institutional example. The main body paragraphs could have been extended with deeper explanations of how these experiences directly benefit an undergraduate student's long-term career to reach a higher level.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, two distinct body paragraphs focusing on separate advantages, and a concluding paragraph. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate ideas. Cohesion within and between sentences is generally managed, using transitional markers such as 'Therefore', 'However', and 'For example'. However, cohesion can sometimes feel slightly mechanical or repetitive in its referencing, such as the repeated use of 'When doing a work placement, students...' and 'Studying the same undergraduate course abroad...'. The logical progression is present, but smoother transitions between sentences would enhance the flow of the argument.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'hands-on experience', 'industry experts', and 'fruitful'. However, there are noticeable limitations and inaccuracies in word choice and collocation. For example, the phrase 'working in corporate' is unidiomatic and should be 'working in the corporate sector' or 'undertaking a corporate internship'. Additionally, there is a spelling error in the conclusion ('conlusion'), and some phrasing lacks precision, such as 'every university specialized in one course'. These minor lexical slips and occasional awkward collocations mean the vocabulary remains at a standard level without reaching greater flexibility.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing structures with conditional clauses and relative pronouns such as 'When an undergraduate program would include...' and 'If students could travel abroad they would get to learn...'. There are some errors in grammar and punctuation throughout the text, such as the tense usage in 'When an undergraduate program would include...' and a punctuation error with a semicolon followed by a lowercase letter ('related work placement; they would'). Articles and prepositions also show occasional minor lapses, such as missing articles before plural nouns or singular countable nouns. Nevertheless, these errors are relatively infrequent and rarely impede communication, allowing the reader to follow the arguments easily.

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