Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-15
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)
Individuals argue that primary schools focus too much on formal teaching. I agree to some extent because strick regulations important part of learning while practical learning and sports are also important as much as much as fomal study.
On the one hand, schools, collages and universities should introduces strick curiculam that leads to students can follow curiculam such as a theortical lectures.It may allow to learn disipline and time managment. Students should attend compulsary because theory is basic term which can helps understand hard concept. For instance, pharmcy students should learn antomy and physiology, pharmaceutices and pharmacology subject. It may allow to help in thier future prespective. Moreover individuals give exam compulsary and calculate knowladge based on grade.
On the other hand, formal learning gives less opportunity to learn pratical terms such as a critical thinking, problem solving skills and creativity. Activites can plays major roles in students life such as a projects, experiments, interships and vocational training programmers help students apply their knowladge in real life situations. For instance, pharmacy students are just memories durgs names, uses, mechanisam of actions and advers effect. During interships and vocational tranings time they can handle real patients. As a result gain exposure and improves skils.
Additionally, students playing habits are also important. Students who plays cricket, football, vollyball and kho kho. They are physically stronger and mentaly active. Playing sports it also help to make new friends and how to work with them. Before that it also help to learn leadership and confidence.Therefore, everyone should include some form of physical activity in their daily routine.
In conclusion, I believe that mixture of formal study, pratical study and students playing habit should be balance. It works in every students life and highly impact on their lifes.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses both parts of the prompt: whether primary schools focus too much on formal learning, and the importance of play alongside learning. The candidate takes a clear position ('I agree to some extent') and attempts to develop ideas across multiple paragraphs. However, some ideas are repetitive and underdeveloped. For instance, the discussion on pharmacy students shifting to practical training is somewhat exaggerated and shifted out of the primary school context, which detracts from task focus. The ideas are relevant and generally cover all parts of the prompt, aligning best with Band 6 descriptors.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is organised into an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion, showing an overall logical arrangement. Paragraphing is attempted, with each body paragraph starting a new idea. However, the progression is sometimes hindered by abrupt transitions and faulty cohesive devices. Phrases like 'On the one hand' and 'On the other hand' are used, but referencing is occasionally unclear, such as 'It may allow to help in thier future prespective.' Additionally, cohesive devices can be mechanical and repetitive. This level of organisation and cohesion fits the Band 5.0 to 6.0 range, leaning toward Band 5.5 due to awkward flow and repetitive sentence structures.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The candidate attempts less common vocabulary such as 'curriculum', 'theoretical', 'discipline', and 'vocational training', but there are numerous spelling errors throughout the text ('strick' for strict, 'fomal' for formal, 'collages' for colleges, 'theortical' for theoretical, 'disipin' for discipline, 'compulsary' for compulsory, 'knowladge' for knowledge, 'pratical' for practical, 'memories' for memorise, 'durgs' for drugs, 'mechanisam' for mechanism, 'advers' for adverse, 'tranings' for trainings, 'vollyball' for volleyball, 'mentaly' for mentally). These frequent spelling and word-choice errors cause some difficulty for the reader, though meaning can usually be discerned. This corresponds to Band 5.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but control is weak. There are frequent grammatical errors, such as missing auxiliary verbs ('Individuals argue...', 'Students should attend compulsary'), incorrect prepositional usage, and awkward phrasing ('Students playing habits are also important', 'Playing sports it also help'). Punctuation and sentence boundaries are also affected. While some simple sentences are correct, the frequency of grammatical errors across complex structures prevents the essay from reaching Band 6.0, aligning it with Band 5.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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