Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-04

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)

University should prioritize undergraduate student to complete the course by studying abroad or working in industry for better exposure. Although, this move seems to have some disadvantages, i believe that the advantages such as exposure and experience outweighs ths disadvantages.

One of the biggest advantage of including a time for studying abroad or working in industry is that the exposure that comes with it. Moving abroad for studying at this age will provide more exposure, through which the student can learn many things such as how things are working in abroad and the mindset of people in abroad. Also, the student will get enormous confidence by moving out of home to study, which will help them in taking decisions in their life. For example, the student who had a earlier knowledge on living abroad will help them in figuring their desired country to make living.

Another reason for supporting this move is the increased quality of education abroad. By moving out, the student is exposed to higher quality of education and better lab facilities. These early exposure and the experience that the student gets from this move will be benefitted in their life on longer run. On top of that, the student will learn on how to take care of them by staying away from home. As a result, these experience will make them capable to live indepedently.

Although, there might be few disadvantages such as the finding opportunities and financial constraints, I believe that the advantages such as experiencing to have a indepedent life and exposure outweighs the disadvantages.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of including study abroad or work placements in undergraduate courses, and maintains a clear position throughout. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others. For instance, the paragraph discussing the increased quality of education relies on repetitive assertions rather than deep elaboration, and the counter-argument regarding financial constraints is introduced only briefly in the conclusion without being thoroughly explored. To move higher, the student should ensure that every main idea is extended and supported with fully articulated reasoning and concrete examples rather than generalisations.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

There is a coherent overall arrangement to the essay, with a clear introduction and conclusion, and the response is divided into logical paragraphs that each focus on a specific aspect of the prompt. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. The student relies on basic cohesive devices like 'Also' and 'On top of that', and referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the sentence 'the student who had a earlier knowledge on living abroad will help them', where the pronoun reference becomes confused. Progression is present, but to achieve a higher band, the writer needs to employ a wider range of cohesive devices more fluidly and ensure precise referencing between sentences.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'financial constraints', 'prioritize', and 'independently'. However, there are noticeable word-choice, collocation, and word-form errors that reveal a limited lexical flexibility. Examples include 'prioritize undergraduate student' instead of students, 'working in industry' lacking an article, 'how things are working in abroad', 'have a indepedent life', and referencing 'this move will be benefitted'. While these inaccuracies do not seriously impede communication, they restrict the vocabulary score. To improve, the student must refine word forms, prepositions attached to specific lexical items, and collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The essay displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an attempt to use relative clauses and conditional structures. There are, however, some errors in grammar and punctuation throughout the text. Instances include pluralisation and article errors ('undergraduate student', 'the finding opportunities'), minor subject-verb agreement slips ('advantages... outweighs'), and awkward phrasing within clauses ('the student will learn on how to take care of them'). Fortunately, these errors rarely impede overall communication. To reach the next level, the writer needs to increase the proportion of error-free complex sentences and maintain tighter control over articles, pronouns, and prepositions within grammatical patterns.

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

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