Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-08

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)

I strongly agree with the statement that, undergraduate courses should be designed in a way that students should spent at least one semester abroad studying with other students from parts of the world or doing an internship in big organizations has more advantages than the disadvantages.

One of the advantage of studing abroad for sometime for undergrade student is, the positive impact on his life. Students visit to other country to socialize with fellow most of them are also from other countries and have their first experience studying abroad as well. This helps in develpment of the student, they understand cultural values, learn different languages and compete with other students in a positive environment. A good example of this is Azhar, my cousin. Azhar studied one semester in UK during his college and that 6 months boost his confidence to next level, his languastic power is better than before as well.

In addition to this, another big advantage is experience. Working in an organization or doing internship during your studies made it easy for individuals to get early eperience which helps in securing a good job once he/she graduated. It dramatically improve their practicle skills along with soft skills as well. Working with industry professionals helps in communication skills as well. Such as, I work in a software house while i was a student and that helps me in both improving not only technical skills but also soft skills as well.

To sum up, Government should make it mandatory for undergrades to haev atleast one semester astudying broad or doing work or an internship in related fields. It helps student in many ways including job hunting as well.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your position is clear: you agree that overseas study or work placements bring more advantages than disadvantages, and you discuss both options. The points about cultural learning, confidence, employability and practical skills are relevant, with personal examples involving your cousin and your own work experience. However, the disadvantages are not considered, so the comparison implied by “outweigh” is not fully addressed. Some benefits are also asserted rather than explained—for example, the claim that placements make it easier to secure a job could be supported by explaining how employers value this experience. Develop the comparison by acknowledging a drawback, such as cost or disruption, and showing why the benefits still outweigh it.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, two body paragraphs presenting separate benefits, and a concluding recommendation. The progression from cultural development to work experience is easy to follow, and phrases such as “In addition to this” and “To sum up” help signal the stages of the argument. This coherent arrangement meets the lower-band expectations and shows some features of stronger organisation. However, links can feel mechanical, and some references are unclear: “that 6 months” and “that helps me” require the reader to infer exactly what “that” refers to. The conclusion repeats the recommendation rather than synthesising the comparison. Use more precise referencing and connect each example explicitly to the claim it supports.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “cultural values,” “internship,” “practical skills” and “industry professionals.” However, the range is limited and several noticeable spelling, word-form and collocation errors reduce precision, such as “studing,” “develpment,” “languastic,” “undergrade” and “early eperience.” Phrases such as “boost his confidence to next level” and “languastic power” are also unnatural and may make the reader pause. Aim to learn accurate word forms and common collocations, then use them consistently. More precise expressions for academic and employment benefits would help you explain your ideas without relying on repeated general words such as “good,” “big” and “helps.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, and the main message is generally understandable. However, control is uneven: the opening sentence combines several ideas without a workable grammatical structure, while “One of the advantage … is,” and “It dramatically improve” show errors in number and subject–verb agreement. Tense choices also shift in “Working … made it easy” and “I work … while I was a student,” and articles and sentence boundaries are sometimes missing or misplaced. These errors can make parts of the response difficult to process. Practise building shorter, complete sentences first, then combine them with accurate clauses. Check agreement, tense consistency and punctuation during revision.

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

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