Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-09-15

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)

During our school life, there are various subject that we need to learn, including history, literature, science and technology.

However, students started to argue about which type of subject is better, subjects emphasize memorizing or understanding.

In this essay, I'll discuss about the cause of this problem and the reason why this shouldn't happened.

In Taiwan, high school students are divided into two groups. One is called social group and the other one is called science group. The biggest difference between them is that students in social group will only have subjects that emphasize memorizing, such as literature and history. On the other hand, students in science group will only have subjects that emphasize understanding, such as math and science. Therefore, students started to argue about which group is better. One of the common argument is that society nowadays requires more students majoring in technology and science. Another argument is that students in science group are boring and weird. Even worse, these arguments are turning into stereotypes recently.

However, these arguments are only misunderstandings. First, society nowadays requires abilities more than majors, and the abilities is diversified. Therefore, students should to focus on learn as much as possible.Students should not only learn things in their group, but also things outside their group. Second, students' pesonality shouldn't be assumed just by their group. It is ridiculous to tell one's personality from group they're in. As a result, there will be no answer to which type of subject is better, because it is unreasonable.

In conclusion, students should learn whatever they can no matter which group they are in. In addition, there will be no better or worse subjects. Every subject exist for a reason. Last but not least, students should stop arguing about which group is better. Instead, they should argue about why they cannot learn anything they want.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The candidate has misinterpreted the prompt significantly. While the prompt asks to discuss whether History is more important than Science and technology and to give an opinion, the student reframes the prompt into an essay about the division between arts and science groups in Taiwanese high schools and the stereotypes associated with them. The discussion about the relative importance of History versus Science is largely replaced by a social commentary on high school tracking and personality assumptions. Consequently, the core task of weighing History against Science and Technology is only partially addressed, leading to an under-developed position regarding the prompt's actual subject matter. Therefore, a band score of 5.0 is appropriate as the response addresses the prompt tangentially and shifts the focus away from the primary debate.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay has a basic structure featuring an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is attempted, though some paragraphs are somewhat dense and blend multiple ideas together. Cohesive devices are used, but they tend to be repetitive and mechanical, such as the frequent reliance on 'First', 'Second', 'However', and 'In conclusion'. Progression is occasionally disrupted by the shift in focus towards the Taiwanese educational system rather than directly answering the prompt's conceptual question about school subjects. Referencing is generally clear, but the logical flow between sentences occasionally falters due to abrupt shifts in thought. Overall, the organizational framework is adequate for a band 6.0, as the text is coherent overall despite some faulty or mechanical cohesion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, successfully communicating ideas related to education, subjects, and stereotypes using words such as 'memorizing', 'understanding', 'stereotypes', and 'unreasonable'. However, there are notable lexical errors and unnatural word choices throughout the text, such as 'subject that' instead of 'subjects that', 'subjects emphasize' instead of 'subjects that emphasize', and 'focus on learn' instead of 'focus on learning'. The use of less common vocabulary is limited, and spelling or word-choice errors occasionally surface. While these issues do not heavily impede communication, they restrict the lexical score to a band 5.5, reflecting a limited but minimally adequate range with noticeable errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response exhibits a mix of simple and some complex sentence forms, demonstrating an attempt at varied syntactic structures. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in verb forms, infinitive structures, and pluralization. Examples include 'students started to argue' (tense consistency issues), 'subjects emphasize' (missing relative pronoun/participle), 'the abilities is diversified' (subject-verb agreement error), 'should to focus on learn' (incorrect modal verb construction), and 'pesonality' (spelling). There are also punctuation issues. These errors occur frequently across the text and occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader, fitting the band 5.0 profile where attempts at complex structures are often faulty and frequent errors persist.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.