Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-07

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)

It is argued undergraduate courses in every university should include a period of time spending on studying abroad either doing a work placement. I believe that the advantages of this will be going to outweigh the disadvantages.

There are several reasons that advantages of studying abroad and doing a work placemenet is that student can gain practical skills that will not be going to get from the regular classrooms/classes. For example, allows students to apply academic skills to real-life-situation and helps them to understand their chosen industry operates. This can improve their communication, teamwork, problem-solving and time-management skills. In addition, internation study can expose students to different cultures, making them more independent.

However, there are some disadvantages to this, that students will came across the financial burden like travelling expenses, living expenses, can lead to a mental burden. For a quintessential example, a student coming from a weak financial family, then the student will have to spend their money by thinking twice this may lead to a mental burden on the student.

the solution, these disadvantages can be reduced through a good from the universtities such as, scholarship, paid internships, affordable accomodation and travel expenses. For instance, a graduate who has already gained workplace experience may have a advantage as compared to other students, when they were applying for their full-time job.

In conclusion, studying abroad or completing a work placement may involve additional costs and compromising difficulties, these experience provide students and valuable academic,and professional benefits. Hence, I strongly believe that the advantage of this outweigh the disadvantages.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

Your position is clear from the introduction and conclusion: you believe the benefits outweigh the costs. You address both sides, identifying practical skills, cultural exposure and financial pressure, and you offer ways universities could reduce the costs. These points are relevant and show the task is understood. The discussion is not equally developed, however: the benefits are explained with several examples of skills, while the disadvantage is mainly illustrated through one student’s financial stress. The final example about workplace experience supports the benefits but appears in the paragraph about solutions, so its role is unclear. To strengthen the response, explain more fully how placements or overseas study benefit different students and weigh those gains directly against the costs.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a recognisable overall structure, moving from an introduction to benefits, disadvantages, possible solutions and a conclusion. Linking expressions such as “For example,” “In addition,” “However” and “In conclusion” help signal the direction of the argument. This gives the essay a coherent overall arrangement. Some connections are less clear or mechanical: “the solution” begins a new paragraph without a complete transition, and the example about graduates’ job prospects is placed after the proposed financial support, making it unclear whether it is a solution or another advantage. The long sentence about expenses and mental burden also combines ideas without clear relationships. Use topic sentences and organise each paragraph around one main purpose, with references that clearly connect examples to claims.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “practical skills,” “real-life situation,” “financial burden,” “independent” and “paid internships.” These choices communicate the main ideas and show some attempt to use topic-specific language. However, the range and control are uneven, with noticeable spelling and word-choice errors such as “placemenet,” “internation study,” “quintessential example” and “weak financial family.” Some phrases are also unnatural, including “spend their money by thinking twice” and “a good from the universities.” These errors sometimes make the reader pause to interpret your meaning. Aim for accurate, natural collocations, such as “students from low-income families” and “financial support from universities,” and check spelling carefully before submitting.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a relative clause in “a student coming from a weak financial family” and a conditional idea about the costs’ effects. The main argument remains understandable, but control is limited: several sentences contain faulty structures or verb forms, such as “the advantages … is that student can gain” and “students will came across.” The example beginning “For example, allows students” is a fragment because it has no clear subject, while “these experience provide students and valuable…” has agreement and sentence-structure problems. Punctuation and capitalisation are also inconsistent, particularly at the start of the solutions paragraph. Practise building complete sentences with a clear subject and verb, and check agreement, articles and verb forms in each clause.

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