Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-08-09

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people say that in all levels of education, from primary schools to universities, too much time is spent on learning facts and not enough on learning practical skills.

Do you agree or disagree?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

 

Student answer (Band 5.5)

A few individuals claims that schooling is these day is more focused of teaching theroritical part rather than providing practical skills. I completely disagree with this opinion. This essay will discuss the viewpoint in support of my answer.

Schools and colleges these day focus more on practical skills to develop children interest. The main motive to do this is to increase students interest and provide better understanding. For instance, students these day are taken to botanical gardens to provide knowledge about the different types of plants like herbs shrubs and trees. One of the advantage of this is child can explore the part of plants by touching feeling it. Moreover this helps them reatin the knowledge for longer time.

Many schools these days provide international syllabus which tests the practical skills, extracuricular activites and various other things, therefore parents these days opt for these schools due to the fact that child can gain good knowledge. Schools these days have practical labs where students are given live demo of the experiment explained in classroom. This also stimulats the interest of student as they are given chance to witness and try out different experiments in lab under the guidance of teachers. In addition to that students are also given marks for the practical performance for thr final mark sheet. there are few students who are least intrested in theoritical part but score good in practical.

Overall, I belive that schools are also focusing on providing practical skills other than teaching facts to students

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt and maintains a clear position throughout. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited. While you provide examples like botanical gardens and science labs, the explanation remains quite general. To reach a higher band, you should expand on the 'why' and 'how' of these points, perhaps discussing the long-term impact of practical skills on career readiness versus the necessity of theoretical knowledge. The conclusion is also very brief and lacks a summary of the main arguments presented in the body paragraphs, which affects the overall completeness of the task response.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organised into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the flow of ideas. You use some cohesive devices such as 'Moreover', 'In addition to that', and 'therefore'. However, the use of these devices is sometimes mechanical or slightly awkward. For instance, the transition between the second and third paragraphs could be smoother. Additionally, there are issues with sentence-level cohesion, such as the lack of punctuation in 'Moreover this helps' and the run-on structure in the final paragraph. Improving the variety and accuracy of linking words will enhance the logical progression.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, but it lacks the range and precision required for higher bands. You rely on basic terms like 'good knowledge' and 'various other things', which are imprecise. There are also several spelling errors, such as 'theroritical', 'extracuricular', 'activites', 'stimulats', and 'belive'. These errors are frequent enough to be noticeable. To improve, focus on using more academic collocations and ensuring accurate spelling of key topic-related vocabulary. Expanding your range to include more sophisticated synonyms would also be beneficial.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede readability. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('A few individuals claims'), article misuse ('the part of plants'), and missing punctuation. The sentence 'One of the advantage of this is child can explore...' is grammatically weak. While you attempt complex sentences, the control over them is inconsistent. To improve, focus on basic accuracy, such as pluralisation, article usage, and ensuring that every sentence has a clear subject and verb structure.

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

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