Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-02

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 undergraduate degree programme should incorporate either a period of over seas study or practtical workplace experience. I do believe that following this has huge benefits that would outweigh the drawbacks.

The primary advantage shared by both overseas study and gaining practical workplace experience is that they can help the students to develop greater confidence. It teaches them how to intereact with other people in the real world. Moreover they learn pressure handling by navigating through the obstacles that they face during this period. For example a person that went abroad to study for the first time has to navigate through many things such as city registration and learning laws of that country while doing academmic studies at the same time. He experiences the new culture which can broaden the student's perspective.Finally he improves his ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously.

Despite these benefits, the major drawback is that if a student develop a sense of fear while going through this phase, it can have long lasting negative impact on his heath from which he might not recover easily. For example a student handling multiple tasks simultaneously can get overwhelmed due to new environment, language , culture, people and can easily get anxious/depressed. This could have a negative impact on him rather than having a positive impact.

To conclude I still believe that if student study abroad or work for some duration and he learns how to adapt to new situations while managing financial difficulties it can help in a longer run more in a positive manner.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by presenting a clear position on whether the advantages of studying abroad or doing work placements outweigh the disadvantages. Both sides of the argument are acknowledged, fulfilling the core prompt requirements. However, the ideas are developed unevenly. While the benefits section introduces several points regarding confidence and multitasking, they remain somewhat generalized and rely on brief assertions without deep elaboration. Conversely, the counter-argument regarding potential anxiety and negative health impacts is introduced swiftly in a single paragraph. To move higher, the student needs to extend and support all main arguments with richer explanations and more fully realized examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear stance established in the introduction and reinforced in the conclusion. Paragraphing is utilized appropriately to separate the introduction, advantages, disadvantages, and conclusion. However, the cohesion between and within sentences can be somewhat mechanical or basic, relying on repetitive transitional markers like 'Moreover', 'For example', and 'Finally'. Referencing is also occasionally unclear, such as the pronoun shifts between plural and singular forms when discussing students (e.g., switching abruptly from 'the students' to 'a person that went abroad... He experiences'). Managing cohesive devices more flexibly and ensuring smooth progression would elevate this aspect.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to convey their ideas about university courses and experiential learning. The student attempts some less common vocabulary and idiomatic concepts, such as 'multitasking', 'pressure handling', and 'long lasting negative impact'. However, there are noticeable spelling errors ('over seas', 'practtical', 'intereact', 'academmic') and word choice inaccuracies that reveal limitations in lexical control. Collocations are occasionally unnatural, such as 'pressure handling' instead of 'handling pressure'. These errors do not seriously impede communication, but they restrict the score, and eliminating these inaccuracies by refining word forms and spelling is essential for progression.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer employs a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an ability to construct multi-clause sentences, such as conditional structures and relative clauses. There are, however, some errors in grammar and punctuation throughout the text. These include missing articles ('if student study abroad'), punctuation omissions around introductory phrases or lists (such as missing commas before lists of challenges like 'new environment, language , culture'), and occasional subject-verb agreement slips ('if a student develop'). Despite these errors, meaning is rarely impeded, and the sentence structures remain comprehensible. Incorporating a wider variety of error-free complex structures with tighter control over punctuation will lead to a higher assessment.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.