Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-11-05

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)

Most of the students in all over the world try to achieve the highest level of studies to build a beter career. To identify the differencs and experience the modern technologies undergraduate courses should include a period of time spent studying abroad or doing a work placement. In here, doing a work placement usually offered in many universities as internship or industrial placement programs.

These type of opportunities can create a wast range of chances for the students. Different countries use different teaching methods and they have different teaching resources. Therefore, doing these things help students to exchange the knowledge and create new paths. Also students can experience different cultures and make new friends. So that, it creates a network around the world and if there a problem around anywhere in the world those network of people can work together to solve that. Students can also meet experts in their interesting areas and insites from them can help them to build a good career before they entered to the society.

As a student practical knowledge is the best thing to understand the theories that they learn from the classrooms. Doing an industrial placement or an internship provides essencial work experience prior to their actual jobs. Experts and work environment create a better learning platform with all the real time inputs such as teamwork, leadership skills and many more.

There are several disadvantages like, students have to spent time to adjust to those new environments, have to spend some money, have to leave the familiar environments and some students find it difficult to do it in a shorter period of time.

In conclusion, all those advantages that we can gain from the programs outweight the disadvantages. Therefore, implementing them can give students a better future.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You take a clear position that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, and you address both study abroad and work placements. Relevant advantages include exposure to different teaching methods, cultural exchange, professional contacts, and practical experience; you also acknowledge adjustment, cost, and leaving familiar surroundings as disadvantages. However, several points are asserted rather than explained. For example, the claim that international networks can solve problems worldwide is broad and needs a specific link to students’ learning or future work. The disadvantages are listed but not weighed against the benefits in detail, and the conclusion mainly repeats your view. Develop fewer ideas with concrete examples and explain why they matter to the comparison. The response includes 16 words copied from the task prompt, which were not counted.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, two paragraphs on benefits, a paragraph on disadvantages, and a conclusion. This makes the overall direction easy to follow, and linking expressions such as “Therefore,” “Also,” and “In conclusion” signal relationships between ideas. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes loose: the discussion moves from teaching methods to friendship, global problem-solving, and career advice without clearly showing how each point connects. Some transitions are mechanical, and “So that” does not link the preceding idea naturally. The opening also repeats the task’s central proposal rather than establishing a more focused line of argument. Group related benefits together, use clearer references, and make each paragraph develop one main point.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a relevant range of topic vocabulary, including “teaching methods,” “industrial placement,” “work experience,” “teamwork,” and “leadership skills.” These choices help communicate the main ideas, and some phrases show an attempt to be specific. However, spelling errors and inaccurate word choices are noticeable and sometimes distract the reader, as in “beter,” “differencs,” “wast range,” and “insites.” There are also awkward or imprecise expressions such as “students in all over the world,” “in their interesting areas,” and “real time inputs.” These issues keep the vocabulary from being consistently clear and natural. Check spelling carefully and learn common collocations for education and employment, such as “gain insight into a field” and “develop professional skills.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including cause-and-effect structures with “Therefore” and a relative clause beginning “that they learn.” The main message is generally understandable, but errors in sentence structure, agreement, verb forms, and articles occur repeatedly. For example, “These type of opportunities can create” has a number-agreement problem, while “doing a work placement usually offered” is missing a finite verb. In “if there a problem,” the clause is incomplete, and “students have to spent time” uses the wrong verb form after “have to.” Some long sentences also combine several ideas without clear grammatical control. Practise checking subject–verb agreement and verb patterns, and divide sentences when they contain multiple claims.

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