Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-09-14

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)

Opinion is divided on whether institutes should teach students about history or whether schools should focus more on science and technology subjects. From my perspective educational institutes should focus more on science and technology, mainly because the students who want to cope up with rapid technological advancement, and want to pursue their career in teach related company or want to develop new improve variety of seeds.

On the one hand, institutes should teach students about history, because it will likely make them patriotic as they are knowing about their countries culture and old history about the formation of their country. For example, Bangladesh a South Asian country with enormous amount of beauty fought against another country called "Pakistan" in 1971. The war was continued for nine months and achieve its victory after sacrificing 3 million people's live. Hearing or reading this history students will feel proud about the hero's who sacrificed their lives and their patriotism will increase a lot.

On the other hand, teaching history solely is not a proper option for students, they should have proper knowledge about science and technology. Science related subjects such as Physics, Chemistry, and Genetics help researchers to conduct research and find new variety of chemical or new plant breed. For example, university students often conduct research on variety of crops and with there gene to make it more resilient to extreme weather. As a result, farmers are harvesting more crops than usual and getting benefitted by genetically modified crops. In addition, technological achievements such as harvesting energy from renewable sources will reduce the usage of mineral resources, which will drastically reduce Earth's temperature.

In conclusion, institutes should history beside science and technological books, as they offer more opportunity than history book. History will increase patriotism of a student while science and technology ensure better career.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both views—the importance of history and the rising prominence of science and technology—while also providing a clear personal opinion. The position is evident throughout the essay. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and uneven. For instance, the introduction sentence ends abruptly with a fragmented clause ('...or want to develop new improve variety of seeds'), which leaves the initial stance underdeveloped. The body paragraphs do present relevant arguments, such as the example of Bangladesh in 1971 and agricultural research regarding crops resilient to extreme weather. While the ideas are supported, the reasoning in places is slightly repetitive or generalized, fitting the Band 6 profile where ideas are relevant but show some under-development.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a recognizable four-paragraph structure. There is a clear progression of ideas moving from the introduction to the historical view, the technological view, and finally the conclusion. Cohesive devices are used to signal transitions, such as 'On the one hand,' 'On the other hand,' and 'In conclusion.' However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or mechanical. For example, the sentence 'Bangladesh a South Asian country with enormous amount of beauty fought against another country...' lacks necessary punctuation or relative pronouns, and phrases like 'teaching history solely is not a proper option' feel slightly disjointed. Paragraphing is used appropriately, but overall referencing could be smoother to achieve a higher band.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating topic-specific terms such as 'technological advancement,' 'patriotic,' 'resilient to extreme weather,' and 'genetically modified crops.' However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward word choices throughout the text, such as 'teach related company' instead of 'tech-related company,' 'new improve variety' instead of 'new improved variety,' and 'countries culture' missing an apostrophe. Less common vocabulary is attempted, but inaccuracies in word formation and collocation prevent the response from reaching a Band 7. Nevertheless, the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the intended meaning without severely impeding communication.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over multi-clause structures as seen in 'In addition, technological achievements such as harvesting energy from renewable sources will reduce the usage of mineral resources...' However, there is a significant frequency of grammatical errors and awkward phrasing. Examples include missing articles or prepositions ('achieve its victory after sacrificing 3 million people's live'), incorrect verb forms ('they are knowing about'), and fragment issues in the introduction. Punctuation errors also occur, such as comma splices or missing commas around embedded clauses ('For example, Bangladesh a South Asian country...'). Because errors in grammar and punctuation are noticeable and sometimes cause difficulty, this aligns best with Band 5.

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