Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

Nowadays, numerous individuals argue that, all universities that offers undergraduate programs should include a period of time spent studying to other countries or doing a work placement. From my perspective, advantages of this view outweigh the disadvantages because its helps student's personal development and also provide better career prospects.

On the one hand, practical work experience develope professional skills and understand the work placement expectations because universties not gave any guarantee of employment, work experience during study provide professional knowledge that assist to students after completing their studies. For example, a business student work in a company can learn knowledge how team work in a company. Another significant thing that mention in this essay, studying to abroad, that makes students more independent and confident. Students experience variety of new cultures and lifestyles that enhance the knowledge and personality of a student. Therefore, its help to students to improve their skills and learn variety of new things in different countries.

Despite the benefit of this development also have few drawbacks, firstly, travelling abroad may can expensive especially for low-income students because living abraod have a large number of expenses such as, traveling, accommodatio, and other daily life expenses that create financial pressure on students. Another significant drawback of studying abroad is that, sometimes students feel homesickness that students go to depression. As a result, students face difficulties and financial pressure.

In conclusion, although studying abroad or completing a work placement can involve financial costs and personal challenges, I believe that the benefits are greater. The practical experience, personal development and improved career prospects gained from these opportunities can significantly benefit students in their future professional lives.**

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response successfully addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of including studying abroad or work placements in undergraduate courses, and presents a clear position throughout. Note that 8 words copied directly from the task prompt were not counted toward the overall length. The main ideas are generally relevant, but some are more fully developed than others. For instance, the discussion on personal development and career prospects is somewhat brief and relies on generalisations, such as stating that a business student working in a company learns how a team works without providing a deeper explanation. To reach a higher level, the ideas would need to be extended with more specific examples and thorough elaboration rather than superficial statements.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct arguments, such as the benefits in the second paragraph and the drawbacks in the third. However, cohesion at times feels mechanical or faulty. Devices like 'On the one hand' and 'Despite the benefit of this development also have few drawbacks' are used, but referencing and transitions between sentences can be slightly repetitive and awkward, as seen in the transition from work placements to studying abroad within the same paragraph. To improve Coherence and Cohesion further, the writer should employ a wider range of cohesive devices more naturally and ensure smoother logical progression between sentences and ideas.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common words and phrases such as 'personal development,' 'career prospects,' and 'financial pressure.' However, there are noticeable errors in word choice, word form, and spelling throughout the response, such as 'develope' instead of 'develop,' 'universties not gave' instead of 'universities do not give,' 'studying to abroad' instead of 'studying abroad,' 'accommodatio,' and 'abraod.' These inaccuracies and spelling slips stem from an attempt to use a broader vocabulary than the writer has full control over, though they do not seriously impede communication. Developing greater precision in collocations and word forms would elevate the lexical score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting complex structures with relative clauses and subordinate clauses. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation. Examples of structural and grammatical issues include subject-verb agreement errors ('universities that offers'), incorrect prepositions ('spent studying to other countries'), misuse of auxiliary verbs ('travelling abroad may can expensive'), and fragment sentences. Despite these various errors in grammar and sentence patterns, the meaning is usually clear and they rarely impede overall communication. To achieve a higher band, the writer needs to increase the proportion of error-free sentences and exercise better control over complex grammatical structures and verb tenses.

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

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