Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-11

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)

University education is necessary to make students more confident. If universities allow their students to spend certain period of their time on studying abroad or gain work experince during their graduation degree, it can have a positive impact on their personal development and help them become more confident.

To begin with, students who study abroad during their undergraduate courses at university become more confident and independent. When students go abroad, they communicate with the different people. In addition, they learn about differnet things including communication and how to handle difficult situation. For example, when students go to another country they have different culture, language and traditional values. They try to learn about their culture and communicate with them which makes them more confident.

Furthermore, students who go abroad during their graduation degree, try to find the job opportunities their. When they do job in other countries, it makes them to perform well and they learn to do hard work. For instance, Companies give different tasks to perform, so they do it independently and work hard to inspire them. they cricically anaylse the situation and perform. So it also make the confident and independent.

In contrast, many students who go abroad, forget their puropse of coming and become careless and avoid doing hard work. They just spend time on exploring different sites and do fun activities only. They may become involve in harmful activites which can damage the repuatation of university as well can be shameful for the country. Everything should be gone hand by hand.

In conclusion, Although sending students abroad for a ceratin period of time during their study at university may have some negative impact, its positive outcomes are larger. Intelligent and hard working student should be given a chance to learn cultural and historical values of other countries. It makes them more confident and independent. So the advanatges outweigh the disadvantages.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You give a clear overall view that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, and you address both sides by discussing confidence and independence as benefits and possible carelessness as a disadvantage. The examples about communicating across cultures and completing work tasks are relevant. However, the response focuses mainly on personal confidence rather than explaining the broader value of either studying abroad or a work placement, such as gaining professional experience or improving future employment prospects. The disadvantage paragraph is also general and does not explain how universities could reduce these risks. Develop each main point with a clearer explanation and a specific example, and make the comparison between the benefits and drawbacks more explicit.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, two paragraphs presenting benefits, a paragraph on disadvantages, and a conclusion. Linking phrases such as “To begin with,” “Furthermore,” and “In contrast” help signal the stages of the argument. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes unclear: the work-placement paragraph moves from job opportunities to hard work and then to analysing situations without showing how these points connect. Some references, such as “their” and “them,” are unclear, and “Everything should be gone hand by hand” does not clearly link to the argument. Use topic sentences that state each paragraph’s main point, then connect each example directly to it with precise referencing.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “independent,” “communication,” “job opportunities,” and “cultural and historical values.” However, the range is limited and several words or phrases are repeated, particularly “confident” and “independent.” There are also noticeable spelling errors, including “experince,” “differnet,” “cricically,” and “advanatges,” as well as inaccurate or unnatural combinations such as “do hard work to inspire them” and “different sites.” These choices sometimes make the intended meaning difficult to follow. Build a wider set of precise expressions for academic and workplace benefits, and check spelling and collocations carefully during revision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentences, including a conditional opening (“If universities allow…”) and a concession in the conclusion (“Although sending students abroad…”). However, the range is limited, and complex structures are often inaccurate. Examples include “it makes them to perform well,” where the verb pattern is incorrect, and “So it also make the confident,” which has agreement and sentence-structure problems. Other errors include “a certain period” without the article, “they do job,” and inconsistent capitalisation after a full stop in “they cricically…”. These errors can make some sentences difficult to understand. Practise accurate verb patterns, articles, subject–verb agreement, and sentence boundaries, then proofread each sentence for a clear subject and verb.

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