Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

All university undergraduate courses should include a period of time spent studying abroad or doing a work placement we can understand this statement by reasoning the advantages and disadvantages in furthur detail.

Firstly, looking at the adavantages if a student is provided with an opportunity to study abroad or a work palcement. Practical experience is a must for someone to gain expertise and understand better through visual learning. Study abroad can make them feel motivated for learning ongoing research in other countries, a work placement would give them experience about time mangment, learning useful skill required for a professional career. Last but not the least is the ample networking opportunities with other skilled professional, professors and collegues.

Secondly, if we look out for disadvantages of a short course studying abroad or a work placement we wouldn't find many but for some students it might not be possible to achive their best results as they may not be mentally prepared for such an enviourment so early and they need some more time to focus. Another reason could be the concern for finances as they have to make arrangements and they lack the nessesary resources in such cases students can seek advice from their university.

Finally we can see that the advantages of a period of time spent studying abroad or doing a work placement outweigh the disadvantages, hence it should be mandatory for all university undergraduate courses that they should include a period of time spent studying abroad or doing a work placement as it provides students with an experience that will help them to reach new heights professionally.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of including study abroad or work placements in undergraduate courses, eventually taking a clear position. However, it falls short of the minimum length requirement, as the response contains only 224 words, which is 26 words short of the 250-word minimum. Additionally, while the ideas regarding practical experience, networking, and potential financial or mental preparation hurdles are introduced, they remain somewhat limited and under-developed. To reach a higher band, the student must expand the word count past the threshold and provide fully extended, well-supported arguments with concrete examples rather than general statements.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The text displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, moving from an introduction to body paragraphs discussing advantages and disadvantages, and concluding with a final stance. Cohesive devices are employed to signal transitions, such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', and 'Finally we can see that', though some referencing and connective structures feel a bit mechanical. For instance, the opening sentence runs two distinct thoughts together into a run-on structure without adequate separation. To improve, the student should ensure smoother transitions between sentences and refine paragraph internal logic so that progression is more natural and seamless throughout.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is minimally adequate for the task, providing basic terms related to education and employment such as 'practical experience', 'networking opportunities', and 'finances'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, including 'furthur' instead of further, 'adavantages' instead of advantages, 'palcement' instead of placement, 'mangment' instead of management, 'achive' instead of achieve, 'enviourment' instead of environment, and 'nessesary' instead of necessary. These inaccuracies occasionally cause minor difficulty for the reader and reflect a limited lexical range. To achieve a higher score, the student needs to demonstrate greater control over spelling, expand their range of less common lexical items, and use precise collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but the control over grammar and punctuation is inconsistent. A prominent issue is run-on sentences and comma splices, particularly in the opening and closing paragraphs where multiple clauses are joined improperly without correct punctuation, such as in '...work placement we can understand this statement...' and 'Finally we can see that...'. There are also minor structural awkwardnesses like 'if we look out for disadvantages'. While the meaning is generally communicated, the frequent basic structural errors and punctuation slips mean the grammar sits firmly within the mid-range description.

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