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)

The university undergraduate ciriculum should include a time in studying abroad or having the companies to hire the student. I agree with the following statement. As it has several advantages for the students in their career and overall life as well.

Studying abroad or having work placement for university student can have a positive impact in their life. It has several benefits for them; as it can help them to get exposure from people and students abroad where they will encounter and learn different challanges which results in gaining an amount of exposure that no education can provide. Such as exposure to a new culture, new work environment, meet new people, learn from them their way of working, work ethic, how the job should be done. It has many advantages to it by studying abroad or doing work placement.

Where as studying abroad makes you more independent. You won't need anybody to rely upon, it makes you responsible as you have to everything by yourself, like for instance you ave your own bills to pay and do your groceries, have to manage the monthly budget and your expenses. Sometimes it is lonely as well as you are far away from your family and it can cause you home sickness. Other than that there are several advantages as well studying abroad you get to explore new culture, socialise with people of different races know about their tradition and their way of living. The system of theirs how the bureaccuracy works in their country how everything is very well organized and maintained especially in a developed country. You get a lot of exposure and it grooms you to be a better indivisual; in terms of responsibilities.

Having work placements have an advantage for students as you wont have to struggle two or three months to get a job and you know that you have a job lined up for you. It is easier for the students as they just started their career and its importmant that they should have a practical exposure to the work environment without wasting anytime.

To conclude that, yes i genuinely believe that all unversities should have this a period studying abroad and have work placements for the students to make them more efficient and

skill full.

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 studying abroad or doing work placements, and clearly states an opinion agreeing with the prompt. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others. While the advantages of independence and practical work experience are mentioned, they tend to be repetitive and lack specific, well-rounded supporting examples. For instance, the discussion on independence focuses heavily on daily chores like groceries and bills without broader personal or academic development. To reach a higher level, the writer needs to extend all main ideas fully and provide more substantial, developed reasoning throughout.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay presents a generally coherent overall arrangement with a clear position stated in the introduction and reiterated in the conclusion. However, the logical progression is sometimes hindered by mechanical and repetitive cohesive devices. Phrases like 'It has several benefits for them; as it can't...' and repetitive sentence starters create a choppy flow. Paragraphing is attempted, but the central body paragraphs tend to bundle multiple distinct ideas together—such as independence, homesickness, and bureaucracy—without smooth transitions. Referencing is also occasionally unclear, such as pronoun use referring back to previous clauses. Improving logical sequencing and using a wider, more natural range of cohesive links will help lift this area.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'bureaucracy', 'exposure', and 'work placement'. However, there are noticeable limitations and inaccuracies in word choice, collocation, and word formation. Examples include 'ciriculum' instead of curriculum, 'challanges' instead of challenges, 'homesickness' used as two words, and awkward phrasing such as 'having the companies to hire the student'. Spelling and word choice errors occur throughout the text, though they generally do not impede communication. To improve, the writer should focus on precise lexical control and accurate spelling of common academic words.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writing displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but attempts at complex structures are frequently marred by errors. There are issues with subject-verb agreement, article usage, and prepositions inside grammatical patterns, such as 'a time in studying abroad' and 'ave your own bills'. Punctuation is also problematic, seen in run-on sentences and fragments like 'To conclude that, yes i genuinely believe...' While these errors rarely impede overall communication, they occur with enough frequency to prevent the writer from achieving a higher score. Incorporating a wider variety of error-free complex sentences and polishing basic grammatical accuracy will significantly strengthen this aspect.

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