Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · 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 5.0)
All students who are doing undergraduate in university should include a period of time spent studying abroad or doing work placement. The advantage is students will get exposure to real work experience. However, I believe disadvantage outweigh the advantage because student will be in more stress
The main advantage of Students who enrolled in undergraduate and opt for doing work placement is they get experience to work in office. They will able to manage work and studies together, They can apply the knowledge which gained from university to their work place. In campus, everyone have to sumbit their final project as part of assignment, and those who gained real work experience have advantage to them, because they got a chance to work on real project in company while they were studing and this help them achive high score
For example, a student who has done internship while studying, have better knowledge previous work which help them in early stages of their career and chances of getting promotion is high
The disadvantage of doing work placement while studying is, it will give more stress to students, They have to manage office and studies at same time. Students have lot more subject in university to study. And it's not easy, some subject need extra time to understand the concept. At the end of each semister they have exam pressure and managing both office and subject will add more stress and mental pressure to them, which will impact their health. For instance, a students who is weak in couple of subject will already in mental stress and give more time to these subject, if they start working then
In conclusion, all undergraduate students who studies in university should do workplace, as it will help in get them better experience however, it will give them more stress which degrade their mental health
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0
The response addresses the prompt partially, presenting a position that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. However, the ideas are limited and under-developed. For instance, the discussion on the advantages focuses narrowly on working in an office and high scores, while the counter-argument regarding stress and health is repetitive and lacks fully supported examples or a complete final thought, as seen in the unfinished sentence at the end of the third paragraph ('if they start working then...'). To move to a higher level, the writer needs to extend and support all ideas more thoroughly, ensuring every argument is fully explained and exemplified.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0
There is some organisation in the essay with distinct paragraph breaks separating the introduction, advantage, disadvantage, and conclusion. However, there is no clear overall progression of ideas, and the logical flow is frequently disrupted. Cohesive devices are used inadequately or repetitively, and referencing is sometimes unclear, such as abrupt transitions between sentences without proper linking words (e.g., 'They will able to manage work and studies together, They can apply...'). Paragraphing is attempted, but internal cohesion needs strengthening with a wider and more accurate range of connectors to guide the reader smoothly through the arguments.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is limited but minimally adequate for the task. The student relies on basic, repetitive terms such as 'advantage', 'disadvantage', 'student', and 'stress'. There are noticeable errors in word choice and word form, such as 'doing undergraduate' instead of 'undergraduate studies', 'workplace' instead of 'work placements', and 'semister' instead of 'semester'. These inaccuracies reflect a restricted lexical range and can occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader. Incorporating less common lexical items and precise collocations with greater accuracy would elevate the quality of expression.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The writing displays a very limited range of structures, consisting mostly of simple sentences alongside attempts at complex forms that are frequently faulty. There are frequent grammatical errors in verb forms, subject-verb agreement, and missing articles, such as 'disadvantage outweigh', 'everyone have', 'a students who is', and 'help in get them'. Punctuation is also problematic, including run-on sentences and comma splices instead of proper conjunctions or full stops. To improve, the student must work on sentence boundaries, subject-verb agreement, and ensure that complex grammatical patterns are constructed accurately without frequent basic errors.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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