Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

In modern era, approaches to study abroad or doing an internship has become increasingly common. While this development offers numerous benefits, it also presents certain drawbacks.

One of the primary advantage is that students of 21st century are always having an eye for being financially independent. For this, they have to compete in international market and polish their skills so that they could to be considered a great addition to manpower in any foreign company. Taking this into account, the universities must specify a time slot for students to approach abroad in their interested field. Furthermore, to motivate and ehance confidence in pupils, they should be provided with the facilities of traineeship. For instance, in Korea and Italy, students are allowed to do part-time jobs such as food delivery riders, salesman, and even drivers after their high school graduation to meet their financial requirements and pay their university fee.

Despite these benefits, there are notable disadvantages. One major drawback is that the time spent on finding foreign approach can sometimes results in time consuming internet surfing that can result in true university study time to go in vain. Not getting enough of required information can lead to mental fatigue. On the other hand, part-time jobs can be exhausting after a hectic university study session that can physically effect individuals. For example, a person taking five classes at university with one hour each class and then working as a salesman, five days a week can be draining for overall health.

In conclusion, although foreing approaches and internship has several advantages, its disadvantages such as time wastage and physical fatigue must be carefully considered before forming a final opinion.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.5

The response addresses the prompt partially, discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of studying abroad or doing a work placement. However, the position is not always clearly sustained, and the ideas presented are somewhat limited and under-developed. For instance, the discussion on financial independence and international markets is introduced, but it quickly shifts into general mentions of part-time jobs in Korea and Italy without fully exploring how these experiences directly relate to undergraduate university courses. Similarly, the disadvantages focusing on mental fatigue and time-consuming internet searches are touched upon rather than thoroughly extended. To move towards a higher level, the writer would need to fully develop all parts of the task with more detailed explanations and clearer, sustained reasoning regarding the core prompt.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction and conclusion, and the writing is divided into logical paragraphs. Cohesive devices are used to connect ideas, such as "While this development", "One of the primary advantage", and "Despite these benefits". However, referencing and cohesion can sometimes feel a bit mechanical or repetitive. For instance, the transition between ideas within the body paragraphs occasionally lacks smooth progression, making the flow slightly disjointed. To achieve a higher standard, the writer should ensure that cohesive devices are varied more naturally and that the logical relationship between sentences is tightly managed without relying on formulaic transitions.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as "financially independent", "manpower", and "mental fatigue". However, there are noticeable errors in word choice, collocation, and word form that occasionally impede communication. Examples include "primary advantage" instead of advantages, "approach abroad" instead of studying abroad, and spelling errors like "ehance" and "foreing". Additionally, phrases like "true university study time" and "foreign approach" sound unnatural. To reach a higher band, the writer needs to expand their lexical repertoire with greater precision, paying closer attention to proper collocations, word forms, and accurate spelling.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures such as conditional and relative clauses. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation that can cause some difficulty for the reader. Issues include subject-verb agreement errors like "One of the primary advantage is", incorrect verb forms such as "they could to be considered", and awkward prepositional usage. Furthermore, articles and plurals are sometimes misused, as seen in "in modern era" and "with one hour each class". To improve grammatically, the writer must exercise better control over complex sentence patterns and carefully proofread to eliminate basic structural and agreement errors.

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.