Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-03

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)

Some people believe all the university undergraduate programs must consists of a scheduled time for studying abroad or working in field for practical experience. I believe advantages are significant than disadvantages of this practice.

The most apparent advantage of studying abroad for a stipulated period as it lets students learn best practices in their respective fields. This is primarily because studying aboard for a semister can helpen widen the skill level and knowledge of the students with different cultures. Therefore, they understand their field of interest better. For instance, many colleges include one or two semisters or field trips during the program, which gives them best practices, and practice that can later utilized in their work. This disadvantages of language barriers can be overcomed with help of proper training, so advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

While studying abroad is not economically viable for majority of students working as a intern gives valuable insight. This is mainly because watching and learning from their predecessors undertand their job roles prepares them for the future job they takeup. As a result, students are trained for the work ,and assimilate in to the workforce. For example, many companies allow internship for students to understand the knowledge level before recruiting them for the role. Furthermore, students might undergo stress and pressure of working in the field, but the advantages far more than the disadvantages.

In conclusion, although studying abroad and doing interships in a company bring several challenges for the student, these methods gives deeper insight into working mechanisms, and understand and best practices of their respective field.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both studying abroad and work placements, and a clear position is maintained throughout that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others, which is characteristic of this level. For instance, while the point regarding learning best practices through studying abroad is introduced, the explanation relies on somewhat repetitive phrasing rather than deep extension. Similarly, the discussion of internships briefly mentions preparing students for future jobs and allowing companies to assess knowledge levels, but these points could be further supported with more precise examples. Nevertheless, the main arguments are relevant to the prompt, and the overall stance is clear from the introduction to the conclusion.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, moving logically from an introduction to body paragraphs addressing study abroad and internships respectively, followed by a summary conclusion. Cohesive devices are used to guide the reader, such as 'The most apparent advantage', 'While', and 'In conclusion'. Furthermore, the response shows features of the next band by maintaining a clear logical progression throughout the main body. However, cohesion is occasionally mechanical or slightly faulty in referencing, such as in the transition 'This disadvantages of language barriers', where demonstrative referencing is imprecise. Overall, the structural framework is sound and provides a clear path through the arguments, satisfying the core requirements of this band level while reaching toward higher-level organizational fluency.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, successfully communicating the main ideas. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'stipulated period', 'assimilate', and 'working mechanisms', though these attempts occasionally feature minor inaccuracies in word choice, collocation, or word form, such as 'working in field' instead of 'working in the field'. There are also several spelling and lexical slips present throughout the text, including 'aboard' instead of 'abroad', 'semister' instead of 'semester', 'helpen' instead of 'help', and 'interships' instead of 'internships'. These errors do not seriously impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score as they highlight a lack of full precision and control over less common items.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response employs a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an ability to construct multi-clause sentences such as conditional and concessive structures like 'While studying abroad is not economically viable for majority of students working as a intern gives valuable insight.' However, there are some errors in grammar and punctuation present throughout the text. These include missing articles ('for majority of students', 'as a intern'), prepositions ('working in field'), subject-verb agreement issues ('advantages are significant than disadvantages'), and minor structural slips like 'can be overcomed'. These errors rarely impede communication, but they occur frequently enough to prevent the writing from achieving a higher score, as complex structures often contain noticeable grammatical inaccuracies.

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

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