Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-10-16

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)

It is widely believed that students mostly spend their time in schools and colleges on learning facts and figues and less time on learning basic practical skills. The leraning institutes gives more attantion to factual knowledge rather than practical knowledge. The curriculum of the students includes topics that are related to facts and figures and students or leraners are just advised to cram from them as they wouold get good grades by learning and cramming those factual figures. The practical experiments and practical skills are offered by only limited institutes.

In my opinion, I think that every leanring institute should educate the students regarding both kind of skills i.e learning facts as well as practical skills. Both of these skills are equally important to have better life ahead. The curriculum of every institute should have separate mandatory lessons in which practical skills regarding financial management, practical demonstartions and communication skills should be given.

One of the main reasons that practical skills are important for learners is that these practical skills help the learners to have more confidence and, help them in interacting with people of different perspectives. While interacting with different people and different institutes the students develop better communication skills. Such skills are required to develop and secure the future. For example: When students gradute form their univeristites then the most challenging phase of life is to get the job. Mostly students who are hunting for jobs have qualification but they lack confidence and communication skills. One of the main reason for not getting the job is lack of communication skills.

In conclusion, the schools and instititues should pay equal attanetion to learnings facts as well as practical skills becuase both of the skills are required for developing better fuutre ahead.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your position is clear: you argue that education should give equal attention to factual learning and practical skills. You address the question and give a relevant reason, explaining that practical learning can build confidence and communication skills, then illustrating this with graduates seeking work. However, the discussion is not fully developed across the task. The opening mainly restates the claim that factual learning dominates, while the case for learning facts receives little explanation; the proposed lessons in financial management and practical demonstrations are also listed rather than explored. To strengthen the response, explain how factual knowledge and practical skills complement each other, and develop your examples with a specific situation or outcome.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a coherent overall structure: it introduces the issue, states your view, gives a supporting paragraph, and ends with a conclusion. The progression from practical skills to confidence, communication, and employment is generally understandable. Some linking is mechanical or repetitive, however. Phrases such as “One of the main reasons” and repeated references to “practical skills” make the argument feel less smoothly connected, while “For example” introduces a broad claim about job-seeking graduates rather than a clearly specific example. The conclusion repeats the position without adding a final synthesis. Use clearer links between each claim and its explanation, and vary referencing—for example, “these abilities”—to improve flow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “factual knowledge,” “practical skills,” “financial management,” “communication skills,” and “qualification.” This gives the response enough topic-specific language to communicate the main ideas. However, the range is limited by repeated use of “skills,” “students,” and “practical,” and some expressions are imprecise or unnatural, such as “develop and secure the future” and “different institutes.” Spelling errors are also noticeable, including “figues,” “leraning,” “attanetion,” and “becuase”; these reduce the accuracy and polish of the writing. Build a wider set of natural collocations for education and employment, and proofread carefully for spelling and word forms.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a relative clause in “students who are hunting for jobs” and a conditional-style explanation of how practical skills support learners. The main ideas remain understandable, but some grammatical errors recur. For example, “The leraning institutes gives” has a subject–verb agreement problem, and “Both of these skills are equally important to have better life ahead” is missing an article and has an awkward grammatical pattern. The sentence beginning “While interacting with different people…” is also left without a clear main clause. Work on agreement, articles, and complete sentence construction, and check punctuation around inserted phrases such as “for example” to make your meaning more controlled.

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