Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-15

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)

In todays rapidly changing world,almost all the universities offers some oppurtuniies to their students.Especially undergraduate students are offered my different type of schemes to expand their experience in real time work environment.For instance,many universities undergraduate course offers a period of such time here you can spent your time to study abroad or doing a wok placement.i firmly believed that this kind of opportunities really helps the students to develop academic exposure for their long term career.

I firmly believed that advantages of this type of opportunities would outweigh the disadvantages.one of the main reason of studying abroad is that because study in abroad universities are based on practical knowledge.that is very helpful for real time expirence of work.Also,there is vast comptetion in the fields,that also help the student to build dicipline and to deal with the situations.one of the primary reason of studying at overseas university is that the deegre from that universities is recogonized by the whole world,therefore,the chances of getting job will increase for such students.For instance, my friend got selected immediately in job because he has the deegre of United kingdom university (University of london).

by doing a placment work of year between your undergraduate deegre, you will understand the practical approach towards the works.I firmly believed that it will prove very helpfull because you can get experince by doing placement work.this will also be so much freat for your CV.There might be a possibility that a company hires you permanently if you are very empressive and doing great in your field. For example,when i was at the placement work at a company in lahore.they offered me a permenant job of manager.that is great oppurtunity for me.

althought,there are numerous advantages of studying abroad and placement work.but there are aslo some disadvantages as well.Such as,studying abroad can be very costly,adapting a different environment ad culture can be vey sressfull sometimes,one can faced a rasicm in abrod.

in conclusion,I reckon that the advantages of this would definately outweigh the disadvantages.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both the benefits and drawbacks and make your position clear: you believe the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. The discussion of work placement is supported with a personal example about being offered a permanent job, while the study-abroad paragraph gives reasons such as practical learning and wider employment prospects. However, some points are asserted rather than fully explained. For example, the claim that overseas degrees are recognised worldwide does not explain how this applies to the courses in the question, and the disadvantages—cost, cultural adjustment and racism—are listed without showing how significant they are compared with the benefits. Develop and compare these points more explicitly to make the argument more complete and convincing.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs on study abroad and work placement, a paragraph on disadvantages, and a conclusion. This helps the reader follow the main line of argument. You also use signposting such as “For instance,” “Also,” and “in conclusion.” However, some connections are mechanical or unclear. The repeated opening “I firmly believed” interrupts the flow, and the disadvantages paragraph begins with “although” but does not complete a contrasting sentence structure. Some ideas within paragraphs are placed next to each other without explaining their relationship. Use clearer topic sentences and link each example directly to the point it supports; vary transitions and ensure contrast markers introduce complete, logically connected sentences.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You attempt vocabulary relevant to education and employment, including “practical knowledge,” “academic exposure,” “placement work,” and “permanent job.” These choices show that you can discuss the topic, but the range and control are limited by repeated general words such as “great,” “helpful,” and “opportunities,” as well as inaccurate or unnatural expressions. For example, “real time experience of work” and “the degree from that universities” do not express the intended ideas naturally. Spelling errors such as “oppurtuniies,” “comptetion,” and “recogonized” also make the writing less fluent to read. Build a more precise set of topic-specific phrases and check spelling and collocations carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You use both simple statements and some attempts at longer structures, including sentences with “because,” “therefore,” and “if.” This gives the response some variety, and the main meaning is generally understandable. However, errors in sentence construction and control occur across the response. For example, “almost all the universities offers” has a subject–verb agreement problem, while “you can spent your time” uses the wrong verb form. Several sentences begin with lowercase letters after full stops, and punctuation is often missing or misplaced, making sentence boundaries difficult to identify. There are also problems with articles, plurals and tense consistency. Practise accurate sentence patterns first, then combine clauses while checking agreement, verb forms and punctuation.

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