Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-09-22

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some university students want to learn about other subjects in addition to their main subjects. Others believe it is more important to give all their time and attention to studying for a qualification. Discuss both these views and give your opinion. Give reasons for your answer and include relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

 

Student answer (Band 5.5)

There are many students who wants to learn about extra additional subjects with their compulsory subjects while others think that giving all their time and attention to learning for career is more necessary. In this eassay, I will discuss both views with my opinion.

In university, we have options of various subjects so somethimes pupils wants to learn new subjects besides their main subjects. The main reason they wants to learn additional subjects are beacause they wants to gain more knowledge rather than only gaining a specific knowledge. Even they believe that knowledge has no boundary. For example, I had a friend who is currently pursuing his MBBS degree and he is very passionate about learning programming. So, he is not only reading medicine but also learning coding in online. All of this is because she wants to upgrade his knowledge.

There are also many learners who believes their career will be successful if they only give focus on their main subjects.So, they don't try new things and at a time their thinking froze.They often thinks learning a specific qualified subject will be enough for them, as a result, they lag behind in their career too. For instance, One of cousin is studying in English in a public varsity so often she had to do presentation and she didn't know how to use powerpoint. In her every exam I had to help her that's because she thought doing good results in her subject will be enough for her.

In conclusion, studying or giving attention to only main subject can be a better way sometimes but if we focus on both compulsory and additional subjects then we will have plenty of opportunities for careers.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both views on whether university students should study extra subjects or focus solely on their main qualification, and a personal opinion is provided in the introduction and conclusion. Ideas are extended with relevant examples, such as the MBBS student learning coding and the English literature student struggling with PowerPoint. However, the development tends to be somewhat anecdotal and descriptive rather than analytically persuasive, and there is a minor inconsistency in pronoun reference within the example regarding the friend (shifting from 'his' to 'she'). Nevertheless, the position is clear throughout, and the main tenets of the task are adequately covered, aligning well with the Band 6 descriptor.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, two body paragraphs representing opposing views, and a brief conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct ideas. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. For instance, transitional phrases like 'There are also many learners who believes' and 'So, they don't try new things' lack smooth integration. Furthermore, referencing is occasionally unclear or confusing, particularly in the third paragraph where pronoun agreement breaks down ('One of cousin is studying in English... that's because she thought...'). These mechanical linkages and referencing issues place the response firmly in the Band 6 category.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully communicating everyday academic concepts such as 'compulsory subjects', 'career', and 'knowledge'. There are several attempts to use less common vocabulary, though these are often marred by word-choice errors and awkward collocations, such as 'eassay', 'public varsity', and 'doing good results'. Spelling errors like 'somethimes', 'beacause', and 'thinks' (for 'think') occur, alongside morphological mistakes like 'one of cousin'. While these errors do not impede overall communication, they prevent the lexical score from reaching the higher band, making Band 5.0 a fair representation of the student's current control.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and conditional structures ('if we focus on both... then we will have...'). However, grammatical accuracy is weak. There are frequent errors in subject-verb agreement, such as 'students who wants', 'pupils wants', and 'learners who believes'. Other structural errors include tense inconsistencies and missing articles, such as 'in online' instead of 'online' or 'online coding', and 'studying in English' instead of 'majoring in English'. Although these errors rarely impede communication entirely, their high frequency across simple and complex sentences means the performance does not consistently sustain the Band 6 descriptor, which requires a better balance of error-free sentences.

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