Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-10-04

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)

Many of the univeristy going pupils are keen to learn about additional subjects aside from their majors. Although students are interested involving to extra subjects, people suggest them to indulge more into achieving a certificate to qualify for a job. As far as I concerned, I would prefer students should learn additional subjects alongside their acdemic lessons.

On one hand, people often claim that students should be focusing on their studies to crack job interviews. Because, it is quite difficult to secure a job without solid academic portfolio these days. Consequently, parents sometimes pressurize them to focus only on their academic studies. They seem to believe that these additional subjects may burden their cognitive function, and they might get distracted from their original education.

on the other hand, few learners quest for the additional knowledge that may help them to gather some practical life skills aside from their academic studies. Evidence suggests that, pupils are eager attend life skill related subjects such as English club, Home Economic class. They trust that these skills will help them to gather some practical knowlege on cooking and communication skills. They see them as major survival skill in foreign countrie.

Moreover, I completely agree on the viewpoints of the students. In my opinion, learners should have practical knowledge outside their books. For exam, during my third degree studies, I took IT courses to understand how to navigate computer, and prepare presentations using microsoft office. So skills made an huge impact on my resume. I realaized it when the recruiters praised about my presentation skills.

In conclusion, student should be interested to get insight from extra subjects to perform better in adulthood. It's not only about achieving some bookish knowledge from academia, our aim should be focused on gathering life lessons from subjects too.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both views—that students should focus purely on their qualifications versus the idea of learning additional subjects—and presents a clear personal opinion. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others. For instance, the discussion on the pressure from parents and the cognitive burden in the second paragraph is somewhat superficial. While relevant ideas are presented, such as the mention of English clubs and IT courses, the support and examples tend to be general rather than thoroughly explored. To reach a higher level, the response would need to extend and support all main arguments with deeper analysis and more fully fleshed-out examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction and conclusion, and the writing is divided into logical paragraphs. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty. Transitional phrases like 'On one hand' and 'on the other hand' are used, but referencing and logical flow between sentences occasionally falter, such as the abrupt transition in the final body paragraph starting with 'For exam'. Paragraphing is present and attempts to group ideas appropriately, but the internal progression within paragraphs can feel disjointed. To improve, the writer should ensure that cohesive devices are used more flexibly and naturally to guide the reader smoothly through the arguments.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, providing a minimally sufficient range to communicate basic ideas about education and career preparation. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'academic portfolio' and 'cognitive function', but these attempts are accompanied by noticeable errors in word choice, collocation, and word form, including phrases like 'univeristy going pupils', 'interested involving to extra subjects', and 'practical knowlege'. Spelling errors, such as 'acdemic', 'countrie', 'realaized', and 'exam', also occur. These lexical inaccuracies indicate a limited control of less common lexical items, preventing the response from achieving a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures such as conditional and concessive clauses. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation throughout the text. Issues include errors in subject-verb agreement and prepositions within grammatical patterns, such as 'As far as I concerned' instead of 'As far as I am concerned', 'agree on the viewpoints' instead of 'agree with', and missing articles or pluralisation errors like 'during my third degree studies'. While these errors rarely completely impede communication, they persist across various sentence types and show a lack of consistent control over complex grammatical structures.

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.