Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-11-08

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people say History is one of the most important school subjects. Other people think that in today’s world subjects like Science and technology are more important than History.

Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant example form your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Some people argue that History more important than learning Science and technology. Other argue wise-versa. This essay will discuss both views before providing an opinion.

History is one of the subjects that teach life lessons. Someone can learn from mistakes and reach success. That is the reason why History is being taught in schools. Importance of the subject is measured by the success. For instance, In the schools in Sri Lanka, students get to learn about kings who ruled the nation time to time. During the lessons, students can learn about the mistakes the rulers made and what they did to recover. History might not have a obvious results like science. However, people every day use history to learn their mistakes and to be successful.

At present, Science is one of the most dominant subjects in a school. It is due to the advancement of technology. A lot of governments provide scholarships for science student because they can guide a country to significant developments. For example, While I was studying my bachelor's in China, the Sri Lankan government provided a full scholarship given that I return to the country. However, I had friend, who was from the same country, studying History major did not receive any support from the government. Even though he and I were gaining the same marks, I was the only one to secure a scholarship. Therefore, at present science subject has the dominance over other subject in the school.

In conclusion, I believe that History is more important than Science. Because, the subject teaches a student to learn from his mistakes and move on to achieve greatness.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both perspectives and state a clear preference for History in the introduction and conclusion. The discussion of History is relevant, especially the example of learning from rulers’ mistakes, and the scholarship example illustrates why governments may prioritise science. However, the two views are not developed equally: the case for History is explained in general terms, while the science paragraph focuses mainly on scholarship access rather than explaining more broadly how science and technology benefit society today. The conclusion repeats your preference but gives little further justification. To strengthen the response, explain the wider consequences of each subject and connect your examples more directly to your reasons, while maintaining a clear comparison between the views.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall arrangement: an introduction, one paragraph for each view, and a conclusion. This makes the discussion easy to follow, and signposts such as “For instance” and “In conclusion” help identify the stages of your argument. Some connections are less smooth or precise, however. “Importance of the subject is measured by the success” does not clearly link the preceding point about life lessons to the example that follows, and “Therefore” introduces a conclusion about science’s dominance without fully showing how the scholarship anecdote proves that broader claim. The final paragraph also begins “Because” as a separate sentence, leaving the relationship between the claim and its reason awkwardly divided. Use clearer links between claims and evidence, and vary transitions rather than relying mainly on standard signposts.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “life lessons,” “advancement of technology,” “significant developments,” and “dominance.” These choices allow you to communicate the main ideas, but the range is limited and some word choices or collocations are noticeably inaccurate. For example, “other argue wise-versa” is not a natural way to express the opposing view, and “a obvious results” and “science student” show problems with word form or phrasing. “Learn their mistakes” also does not express the intended meaning naturally. Aim for more precise academic collocations and check spelling and word forms, especially in key claims. This would make your argument sound more fluent and reduce moments when the reader has to infer your intended meaning.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including the relative clause “students can learn about the mistakes the rulers made” and the conditional structure “given that I return to the country.” The main ideas remain understandable, but errors occur in basic sentence patterns as well as in longer constructions. For example, the opening omits a verb in “History more important,” and “Other argue” has a subject–verb agreement problem. Articles and sentence boundaries also need attention: “a obvious results” is grammatically incorrect, while “In conclusion, I believe that History is more important than Science. Because…” leaves a dependent clause as a fragment. Practise complete sentence construction, agreement, articles, and punctuation, then check longer sentences to ensure each clause is correctly connected.

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