Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-06

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, all universities undergraduate courses included a period of time spent studying abroad.It is widely believed that this issue has become increasingly significently in all modern and developed socities. While this trends offer numerous benefits to students to gain international exposure, while certain drawbacks are also there like every student can not afford expenses of foreign studies. This essay will discuss both the advantages and disadvantages of students spent time in abroad for studies.

To begin with advantages of universities should include a period of time spent studying abroad. The vital is that students gain international exposure . For instance students interact with people from different countries. This may lead to gain knowledge and information of other socities and culture. in addition, learners also makes some kind of professional links . For example, students interact with different stakesholder and companies. This may result to gain favour in their professional life.

In contrast certain demerits of students spent time in studying abroad like every students can not afford the expenses foreign . For instance there is certain amount of budget require for abroad studies . This may lead to inferiority complex in students that their parents can not afford their expenses of study. Finally certain parents takes loans to persue their childs studies. For example there are some kinds of banks that provides loans for studies in high interest. This may leads to financial difficulties for both parents and students.

In conclusion, although there are multiple benefits of foreign studies, some disadvantages can not be ignored. In my personal perspective, the advantages of abroad studies are more then outweight. however above mention disadvantages can be overcome with some proper measures and guidelines of government.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the task only partially, as the prompt's condition regarding a work placement is largely neglected in favour of focusing exclusively on studying abroad. Furthermore, the prompt asks whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, but the student's position remains somewhat unclear and contradictory until the very end, where it is stated that 'the advantages of abroad studies are more then outweight.' Ideas are limited and under-developed, relying on repetitive points about gaining international exposure and financial difficulties without sufficient extension or concrete real-world examples. To reach the next level, the writer needs to ensure both aspects of the prompt (studying abroad and work placements) are fully addressed, take a clear and consistent stance from the introduction, and support all main ideas with well-developed explanations and specific examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

There is some basic organisation with the use of standard paragraph breaks and transition markers such as 'To begin with', 'In contrast', and 'In conclusion'. However, there is no clear overall progression throughout the essay due to repetitive arguments and abrupt transitions between sentences. Cohesive devices are sometimes inaccurate or over-used, as seen in repetitive sentence openings like 'For instance' and 'For example'. Additionally, referencing is occasionally unclear, and the mechanical linking impedes smooth reading. To improve, the writer should use a wider variety of cohesive ties more naturally, ensure each paragraph flows logically into the next without redundancy, and improve the overall progression of ideas.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is limited but minimally adequate to convey the basic meaning of the essay. There are noticeable lexical errors throughout the text, such as 'significently' instead of 'significantly', 'socities' instead of 'societies', and 'stakesholder' instead of 'stakeholders'. Other inappropriate word forms and collocations appear, such as 'students spent time in abroad' and 'high interest' instead of 'high interest rates'. These errors sometimes cause slight difficulty for the reader. To achieve a higher band, the writer must expand their lexical repertoire, incorporate less common vocabulary with greater precision, and eliminate basic spelling and word-choice errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer uses a very limited range of sentence structures, and attempts at complex sentences are frequently faulty. There are persistent errors in grammar across the text, including subject-verb agreement issues like 'all universities undergraduate courses included', tense inconsistencies, missing or incorrect articles ('the expenses foreign'), and prepositions inside grammatical patterns ('studies in high interest'). Punctuation is also weak, evidenced by missing spaces after periods and awkward comma splices. These frequent errors cause strain and difficulty for the reader. To progress, the writer needs to demonstrate a greater variety of complex structures with improved accuracy, paying closer attention to basic rules of agreement, verb forms, and sentence construction.

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

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