Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-09-07
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
Nowadays, many medical research projects are funded by private companies. In your opinion, do you think that research should be carried by private companies, individuals or government?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Student answer (Band 4.5)
It is often argued that the state should invest money on railways rather than roads. Although some people might agree with notion, I completely disagree because roads are more in use by people than railways and it is a complex process that requires more resources.
This approach is not beneficial because of some reasons .Firstly, majority of the citizens use roads rather than railways. The roads are more useful because people utilize them for several purposes like for cycling, public transport and also for private transport. On the other hand, railways do not provide versatility. For instance, the Government of China spent 2 million dollars on railways in 2009, and the state conducted a survey to get the reviews of the citizens. The results of the survey revealed that 70 percent community were not satisfied with this initiative of the government. Thus, large amount of investment on railways rather than roads is not a better approach.
Secondly, construction of the railway tracks is not an easy process, because it requires more resources like large amount of investment, high quality machinery and qualified engineers. Even after these demands it facilitates only a few number of people. In contrast, the roads are built by government revealed the fact that they do not ask for these requirements and they facilitates more individuals. To illustrate, Akash khan, an engineer of Nepal researched it in 2010 and his findings demonstrated that construction of railway track on a mountain was more difficult and it demanded resources by 55 percent more than roads. Hence, spending money on railways is not appreciated by many people.
In conclusion, I strongly disagree with this statement because majority of community does not use the railway and construction of them demands more infrastructure.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 2.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 4.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 2.0
The response is completely off-topic. The prompt asks for an opinion on who should fund medical research (private companies, individuals, or government), but the essay discusses the allocation of government funds between railways and roads. Because the student failed to address the task prompt entirely, the response cannot be assessed as a successful attempt at the assigned task. While the student maintains a clear position regarding the topic they chose to write about, this does not satisfy the requirements of the actual prompt provided.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
The essay is logically organized into paragraphs with clear topic sentences. Cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'On the other hand', and 'In conclusion' are used to link ideas. However, the progression of ideas is entirely irrelevant to the prompt. While the internal structure of the essay is coherent, the lack of connection to the actual task question limits the effectiveness of the organization.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The vocabulary is adequate for expressing simple ideas but lacks the range and precision required for higher bands. There is some repetition of basic terms like 'roads', 'railways', and 'investment'. The student attempts to use some academic vocabulary, such as 'versatility' and 'initiative', but the overall range is limited and does not demonstrate the flexibility needed for a higher score.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are frequent grammatical errors, such as 'majority of the citizens' (missing 'the'), 'large amount of investment' (should be 'a large amount'), and 'facilitates only a few number of people' (should be 'a small number'). Punctuation is generally functional, but the recurring grammatical inaccuracies occasionally hinder the flow of the text.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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