Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-11-03

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 the modern era, university courses offer wide range of knowledge and encourage students to develop skills in their relevant fields. Some individuals argue that university courses, which are undergraduate should include a period of time spent to study abroad or do with work placement to improve their practical skills. I firmly agree with this statement and provide relevant explanation about the benefits of work placement outweigh the drawbacks.

One of the significant advantage is that students can gain practical experience and become more familiar about their courses. They have the oppurtunity to join work placement and internship. In addition, they also interect with their manager and deal the complex problems. The environment of working together engaged learner to coorporate with manager and other employees. One other benefit is that, Students have the oppurtunities to go abroad and develop skills through the large companies. Therefore, it has the significant impact on their study and they can gain more knowledge related to their courses.

On the other hand, it has also drawbacks for the students. They have to spend money for gain experience to the other work placement. It also may effect badly for their time. Universities should provide all the facilities to students for gain knowledge on their residents because some students do not have more time for this work placement. Consequently, these conditions may effective bad for their regular rountine and students can not afford.

In conclusion, include a short period of time has the significant impact of student learning. They can easily gain knowledge about their related field and develop experince. Therefore, it has lot of advantages.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

Your position is clear: you agree that placements or overseas study should be included, and you give relevant benefits such as practical experience, familiarity with a field, and interaction with managers. You also acknowledge disadvantages, including cost and disruption to students’ routines. However, the response only partly develops the comparison asked for. The benefits are mostly listed rather than explained with specific examples, and the conclusion says there are “lot of advantages” without clearly weighing them against the drawbacks. The discussion also shifts between work placements and studying abroad without explaining the value of each. To strengthen the response, develop one or two points with a concrete example and state directly why the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, a paragraph on benefits, a paragraph on drawbacks, and a conclusion. Linking phrases such as “In addition,” “On the other hand,” and “In conclusion” help signal the direction of the argument. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes mechanical, and several ideas are placed together without a clear relationship. For example, the move from students interacting with managers to going abroad and developing skills through large companies is abrupt. The conclusion repeats the benefits rather than bringing the comparison together. Use clearer topic sentences and connect each supporting detail explicitly to the main point; also make references such as “these conditions” more precise.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “practical experience,” “internship,” “complex problems,” and “regular routine.” This gives you enough language to communicate the general argument. However, the range is limited and several word-choice, collocation, word-form, and spelling errors make parts of the response awkward or unclear. Examples include “deal the complex problems,” “engaged learner,” “significant impact of student learning,” and misspellings such as “oppurtunity,” “interect,” and “experince.” Some repeated general terms, especially “students,” “knowledge,” and “benefit,” also limit precision. Build a bank of natural phrases for placements and study abroad, and check spelling and collocations during revision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more extended sentence forms, including a relative clause in “university courses, which are undergraduate,” and a reason clause beginning “because.” However, control is inconsistent, and errors in sentence structure, agreement, articles, and verb patterns occur frequently enough to make some sentences difficult to follow. For example, “One of the significant advantage is” has an agreement error, while “They have to spend money for gain experience” has an incorrect verb pattern. In “Some individuals argue that university courses, which are undergraduate should include…,” the clause is not punctuated clearly. Practise accurate basic sentence patterns first, then add complex clauses and check each sentence for a clear subject, verb, and correct verb form.

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