Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-11-08

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people argue that primary schools focus too much on formal learning.

To what extent do you agree with this opinion?

How important do you think it is for children to play as well as learn in the primary school classroom?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

In every year, I have seen that formal education play an important role in primary school. But in this age, students should learn by informal learning too. Thats why many people argue that primary schools pay extra attention on formal learning. Overall, I believe that learning with extra curricular activities are more benificail than specific curriculam. In this age, student's congnitive abilities are growing up. So, it's important to learn with informal way such as learn through friends while playing.

I am agree that formal education is crucial for primary level. Students are unable to manage their time and schedule. So, the school managment have to manage all the schedules and routine. As well as, students learn step by step, then they promote to the next class. Timetable should be strickly follow because it's a routine which every children have to follow.

In addition, primary school's managment and staff must add activities in formal learning.

If teacher is teaching about the nature, she/he should go outside with students and explain the nature like, grass, trees, sky, clouds, birds and many other things.

On the other hand, I believe that informal learning is also very effective. While children learn many things from their friends during play. Many children learn language skill while they communicates others. Moreover, travelling play singnificant role in leraning. When children travel, they interacts with many people, they learn, hoe to greet with others and how to behave with others.

In conclusion, I must say that formal education is beneficial but we should not only relay on this. There are many other ways of learning like informal learning as well as extra curricular activities.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both parts of the question and maintain a broadly balanced position: formal education is important, but children also benefit from informal learning and activities. The examples about learning nature outdoors and developing language and social behaviour through play are relevant. However, the response does not clearly state how strongly you agree that schools focus too much on formal learning; the opening mentions this view, but your position is more explicit only in the conclusion. Several points are asserted rather than explained—for example, the claim that travel plays a significant role is not closely connected to classroom play. Make your degree of agreement explicit and develop fewer examples with clearer links to the question.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure, with an introduction, separate paragraphs for formal and informal learning, and a conclusion. Connectors such as “In addition,” “On the other hand,” and “In conclusion” help signal the main stages. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes unclear: the discussion of schedules and timetables does not fully explain whether this supports formal learning or the need to balance it with play. Some links are mechanical, and ideas are occasionally joined without clear relationships, as in the sentence about travelling and learning how to greet people. Use topic sentences that directly advance your position, and explain how each example supports the paragraph’s main point.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “formal education,” “cognitive abilities,” “extra curricular activities,” and “language skill.” This gives you enough language to communicate the main ideas, but the range is limited and several noticeable spelling, word-form, and collocation errors make parts less clear. Examples include “benificail,” “curriculam,” “congnitive,” and “leraning”; “pay extra attention on” is also an unnatural phrase. Repeated use of “learn” and “learning” limits variety. Build a bank of accurate topic phrases, check spelling carefully, and practise collocations such as “place emphasis on” and “develop social skills.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more extended sentences, including conditional structures such as “If teacher is teaching about the nature, she/he should go outside” and clauses beginning with “While” and “When.” However, the range is limited, and errors occur frequently in verb forms, agreement, articles, and sentence construction. For example, “formal education play” needs subject–verb agreement, while “I am agree” uses an incorrect verb pattern. In “they communicates” and “they interacts,” the verbs do not agree with the plural subject. Some sentences also lack a clear grammatical connection between clauses. Practise checking each sentence for a clear subject and verb, and review agreement and article use.

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