Band 7.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.0 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-07-29

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In many countries, paying for things using mobile phone (cellphone) apps is becoming increasingly common. Does this development have more advantages or more disadvantages?

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

Student answer (Band 7.0)

Nowadays, it has been noticed that online transactions are done more often as compared to cash transactions in several countries. This change has both merits and demerits depending on the way they are used and by whom it is used.

To commence with, the foremost benefit of using the cellphone for the payment would be that you don't need to carry a large amount of cash in your pockets. As crime rates are increasing, carrying huge amount of money is quite risky, there are chances of being stolen. Also, if you pay through the mobile apps, you have a record of payments you do on the monthly basis whereas in a cash billing you might have no idea that how much you have spent in a month. For instance, you can calculate the amount of money spent on the groceries in a month, which would led you to know your monthly expenses. Furthermore, the online transactions have reduced the corruption in the government and other sectors. People tend to gain some extra money through cash payment which is drastically declined.

On the other hand, paying through the cellphones involves the new technology which might not be accessible for all age group. People of older age, might find this difficult of setting this up and they might need someone to guide through this. Moreover, in some rural areas where we don't have such facilities to start new technology and also they are not economically strong to adapt these change because of less income or resources, can also be one of the drawbacks of online payments.

To conclude, the new generation will be more shifting towards the online transactions in near future, there would be some areas where people would still choose the older methods.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, identifying both advantages and disadvantages. The position is clear, and the ideas are generally well-supported with relevant examples, such as the mention of crime reduction and budget tracking. However, the development of the disadvantages is slightly less robust than the advantages, particularly the point regarding rural areas, which could have been expanded further to reach a higher band. The conclusion is a bit weak and does not clearly restate the final position on whether the development is more advantageous or disadvantageous, which is a requirement for a higher score.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.5

The essay is logically organized into clear paragraphs. Cohesive devices such as 'To commence with', 'Also', 'Furthermore', and 'On the other hand' are used effectively to guide the reader through the argument. However, there are some minor issues with referencing and flow; for instance, the sentence 'People of older age, might find this difficult of setting this up' is slightly clunky. Paragraphing is used appropriately, and there is a clear progression of ideas from the introduction to the conclusion, though the final paragraph is somewhat brief and lacks a strong summary statement.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate and allows for clear communication. The student uses some topic-specific terms like 'online transactions', 'cash billing', and 'economically strong'. However, there are some awkward collocations and word choices, such as 'drastically declined' (which should be 'has declined drastically') and 'new generation will be more shifting' (which is grammatically and lexically unnatural). To reach a higher band, the student should aim for more precise and sophisticated vocabulary, moving beyond basic descriptive phrases to more academic collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is always clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, such as 'there are chances of being stolen' (should be 'there is a risk of theft'), 'which would led you' (should be 'which would lead you'), and 'all age group' (should be 'all age groups'). Punctuation is generally functional, but there are unnecessary commas, such as in 'People of older age, might find...'. The student shows an attempt at complex structures, but the accuracy of these structures is inconsistent, which limits the score.

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