Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

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

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)

In general, practical skills are more important than learning the facts. time spend on steps of education which from schooling to universities is not sufficient for practical instead of fats learning, which is believed by a group of school. am totally agree with it as i will discuss reasons with appropriate examples in upcoming paragraphs.

first and foremost reason is time for understanding the points because physical activity takes less time as compared to read the facts for example as a PSW practical skill like either 2 days orientation or up to 2 months of placement is prominent instead of 6 months of learning facts which gives a clear cut job idea what is performance. so that's why learning skills practically needs more time as compared to facts of learning.

secondly, improved results the reason behind this if a person spend more time on practicing and skill can helps to get better results. for example; doing reading, listening and writing everyday instead of learning grammar rules and facts can improve the output. therefore, time should be spend more on practical learning relative to facts learning.

last but not least, more time on practical skills boost interest as while practicing a person can develop increase while performing a task on the other side when learning facts a pupil can loose hope and get boarded easily. i survey was conducted in villa colombo the results were surprising as 92% of people like working instead of reading the facts and they increase their interest.

to conclude, i believe that spending time on practical skills or more important rather than fact learning as it will improve results as well as better understanding so time should be spend on practical basics more.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear position in favor of practical skills. However, the development of ideas is inconsistent. While the examples provided, such as the PSW placement, are relevant, the arguments are often under-developed or lack logical depth. For instance, the second paragraph attempts to link practical skills to better results but does not clearly explain the causal relationship between the two. The conclusion restates the position, but the overall argument lacks the sophistication required for a higher band. The response is sufficient in length, but the quality of the supporting arguments needs to be more robust and analytical to reach a higher score.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. However, the use of cohesive devices is often mechanical or inaccurate. Phrases like 'first and foremost reason is' and 'secondly, improved results the reason behind this' are awkward and disrupt the flow of ideas. Referencing is sometimes unclear, and the transition between sentences feels disjointed. While there is a logical progression from the introduction to the conclusion, the lack of sophisticated linking words and the repetitive nature of the sentence structures hinder the overall coherence of the piece.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary is limited and often repetitive. There are several instances of word-choice errors, such as 'fats learning' (likely meant 'facts'), 'clear cut job idea', and 'get boarded' (meant 'bored'). The range of vocabulary is insufficient to express complex ideas with precision. While the student attempts to use some topic-specific vocabulary related to education and skills, the frequent errors in collocation and spelling impede the clarity of the message. To improve, the student needs to focus on learning word families and common collocations rather than relying on basic, sometimes misused, terminology.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay contains frequent grammatical errors that occasionally make the meaning difficult to follow. There are issues with subject-verb agreement, such as 'practical skills... is more important', and sentence fragments like 'a survey was conducted in villa colombo'. The use of complex sentence structures is limited and often results in errors, such as 'time spend on steps of education which from schooling to universities is not sufficient'. Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with the use of semicolons and commas. The majority of the sentences are simple, and the lack of control over more complex structures limits the band score.

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

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