Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-18
IELTS Writing Task 1 question
Student answer (Band 5.5)
It is often argued that higer education should be charged free to all the students. No doubt it would provide equal oppurtunities, and reduce financial pressure of the individuals, it would also put government and tax payers under the pressure.
On the one hand, everyone has a right of education, and if it would be free, people from different financial backgrounds could be eligible to grab this opportuninty. Hence, talented students who never get a chnace to aquire university education because of their financial conditions, could brighten up their futures and contributes to the nation which reduce their finaancial pressure for appling for study loans or debts.
On the other hand, it would put pressure on government and tax payers because education institutes are running from government funding. Government provides different facilities to the universities such as funding for renovation, teachers' salaries and other resources which are required to run these academic institutes efficiently. Moreover, people who are able to pay their tution fees, would also take the advantage of this which means everybody have to pay high tax to government which will be unfair for the middle class families. Rather than providing education completely free, I would suggest to providing scolarships to deserving students.
To conclude, I partly agree with the statement because it would provide benefits to the students by providing opportuninty to learn which contributes to the nation in future, it is also a topic of concern for government and public to raise funds to run the universities
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0
The response addresses the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of free higher education and providing a clear personal viewpoint in the conclusion. The writer presents relevant ideas, such as equal opportunities and reducing financial pressure on one hand, and the burden on taxpayers and governments on the other. However, the development of some ideas lacks depth and contains slight tangential elements, such as focusing heavily on scholarships in the final body paragraph. Overall, the main parts of the task are adequately addressed, positioning this response firmly at Band 6.0.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay is generally coherent with a clear overall arrangement into introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate contrasting views. Cohesive devices are employed, such as 'On the one hand', 'On the other hand', and 'To conclude', which helps guide the reader through the argument. However, referencing and transitions are at times mechanical or slightly awkward, such as 'which reduce their finaancial pressure for appling for study loans or debts', which creates run-on sentence structures and impacts the smooth flow of information.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student displays an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common lexical items such as 'financial backgrounds', 'renovation', and 'academic institutes'. However, there are numerous spelling errors throughout the text, including 'higer', 'oppurtunities', 'chnace', 'aquire', 'contributes' (verb-subject agreement error), 'finaancial', 'appling', 'tution', 'scolarships', and 'opportuninty'. While these spelling mistakes do not completely impede communication, their frequency prevents the lexical score from reaching Band 6.0, placing it at Band 5.5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as conditional and relative clauses. There are, however, several grammatical and punctuation inaccuracies present. Examples include article omissions and misuses like 'charged free' instead of 'provided free', 'right of education' instead of 'right to education', and run-on sentences containing multiple clauses joined only by commas, such as 'No doubt it would provide equal oppurtunities, and reduce financial pressure of the individuals, it would also put government and tax payers under the pressure.' These errors occasionally cause difficulty for the reader.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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