Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-01

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)

Many people debated that ealry schooling focusing much more on formal education. Focusing on activity based learning is important while it's necessary to teach youngesters to engaged much more with practicall knowledge as well. Primary education offer certain benefits but in my opinion it is quite problematic.

It is undeniable that activitiy learning plays a crutial role in a students life it makes them more creavtive and deliver them better knowledge but therotical lessons give them more skills. For instance, a learner who was tought by formal education explored more creative problem solving methodolgy as compare to the students who were much engaged with syllabus learnings.

Opposing this a student with formal learnings gives you more good results in practicall life. The individual can handel the situtaion well, through his learning skills. Moreover, formal learnenrs cannot slove problems more afficiently for example, in job career knowledge is prioritized beacuse through this use can tackel the critcal situtaions and give effective solutions in practical field.

Further more, learning through games is benefical for the children but giving too much time on such kind of activities is not fruitfull for their futures. Balanced should be mentaioned between both kinds of learnings adding an example, if a children first tought therotical learning in the classroom that team work helps you in solveing a problem, after that assign them some kind of activity in which they are stuck in a difficult situation/task and instruct them to apply the criteria thay had learned in the class leasson. This gives us more effective results.

In conclusion, formal education is as much important as activities but the institutes make a good balance between both types of learnings. As primary age learning is for shorter time span instead of formal learning will continued throughout the life of students. So it should be more focused.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both formal learning and play in primary schools, but the development of ideas remains limited and under-developed. While a position is stated in the introduction, the arguments shift somewhat and lack consistent clarity. For instance, the writer attempts to discuss the benefits of activity-based learning and theoretical lessons, but the supporting points are repetitive and confuse the relationship between practical and formal education. The ideas are presented at a surface level without sufficient expansion or relevant, well-integrated examples, meaning the overall response only partially tackles all parts of the task prompt.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

There is some basic organisation with paragraph breaks representing different stages of the argument, but the text lacks a clear overall progression. The use of cohesive devices is inadequate, inaccurate, or repetitive, with awkward transitional phrases such as 'Opposing this' and 'Further more' that do not clearly connect the logical flow of ideas. Referencing is occasionally unclear, making it difficult to follow the writer's line of thought. Paragraphing is attempted, but internal cohesion within paragraphs suffers from abrupt shifts between points, meaning the overall structure requires more careful logical sequencing and more accurate signposting to guide the reader smoothly.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is limited and barely adequate for the task, with noticeable errors that frequently cause difficulty for the reader. There are numerous spelling mistakes throughout the essay, such as 'ealry', 'youngesters', 'practicall', 'activitiy', 'crutial', 'creavtive', 'therotical', 'tought', 'methodolgy', 'compar', 'handel', 'situtaion', 'learnenrs', 'slove', 'afficiently', 'beacuse', 'critcal', 'benefical', 'fruitfull', 'mentaioned', and 'thay'. Word choices are often strained or inaccurate, such as 'learning through games is benefical' or 'Balanced should be mentaioned', which restricts the precision of the argument and shows a restricted control over lexical items.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response relies on a very limited range of sentence structures. When the writer attempts complex sentences, they are frequently faulty, leading to frequent grammatical errors that can cause difficulty for the reader. Examples include subject-verb agreement errors like 'formal learnenrs cannot slove' and 'if a children first tought', as well as persistent punctuation errors and awkward phrasing such as 'Many people debated that ealry schooling focusing much more on formal education.' Simple structures are controlled with varying degrees of success, but the high frequency of errors across basic and complex patterns prevents the writing from achieving higher levels of grammatical control.

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