Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-16

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 6.5)

Due to technological advancements doing online payments through cell phone application has become increasingly common. Although there are few drawbacks like, digital frauds and dependency on internet, I believe that it has more advantages. Few advantages are, saving time, lower the risk of robbery.

The most significant drawback of online payment is digital fraud, the hackers can use anyone's confidential data to steal money from their account. For example, in my own experience, I was falsely charged with $1000 when I entered my data on online shopping website. Another significant reason is that online payments are completely depended on device and internet. If phone dies due to less battery people may suffer to make payments. This is very common issue that most of them experience. For example, People went for shopping and forgot to carry their phone from car can create unnecessary problem during checkout.

However, there are several benefits of online payments. One significant advantage is using cell phones as secure wallet to keep money save, It reduces the chance of robbery. Moreover, previously people needed to carry cash in wallet by putting their lives on risk. Another benefit is that it saves time, online transactions are easy to do without taking longer hours. For example, in past, people used to travel to banks to transfer money from one account to another. There was a time duration of 24 to 48 hours for that transfer, however, now it is done within minutes.

To conclude, Digital payments can be risky and increase dependency on phones, I believe that is time efficient and reduce the usage of cash which results in the lower crime rate. For these reasons, the negatives far outnumber the positives.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both advantages and disadvantages of mobile payment apps and clearly states a position in the introduction and conclusion. Ideas are extended and supported with examples, such as personal experience with digital fraud and the time saved compared to traditional banking. However, there is a minor contradiction in the final sentence where the writer states 'the negatives far outnumber the positives,' whereas the body paragraphs and introduction previously argued that it has 'more advantages.' Despite this slight inconsistency in summarising the stance, the response fulfils the requirements of the prompt well, providing relevant arguments and supporting details throughout.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is logically organised into an introduction, two body paragraphs exploring opposite sides, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to separate the drawbacks and benefits. Cohesive devices are employed, such as 'However,' 'Moreover,' and 'To conclude,' though some transitions feel slightly mechanical or repetitive, such as starting multiple sentences with 'Another significant reason' or 'Another benefit.' Referencing is generally clear, but occasional clunky phrasing affects the overall flow between sentences. Overall, there is a clear logical progression throughout the text that guides the reader easily from one idea to the next.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'technological advancements,' 'digital frauds,' 'confidential data,' and 'online transactions.' However, there are noticeable word-choice and collocation errors throughout the text, such as 'doing online payments' instead of 'making online payments,' 'depended on device' instead of 'dependent on devices,' and 'putting their lives on risk' instead of 'at risk.' Spelling is generally accurate, but these lexical inaccuracies restrict the score, preventing the response from reaching the higher bands where precision is required.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The writer demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and conditional structures. There are, however, several grammatical errors throughout the text, such as missing articles ('forgot to carry their phone from car'), incorrect prepositions, and awkward phrasing like 'If phone dies due to less battery people may suffer to make payments.' Punctuation is also occasionally faulty, with comma splices present (e.g., 'One significant advantage is using cell phones as secure wallet to keep money save, It reduces the chance of robbery'). These errors do not seriously impede communication, but they occur frequently enough to prevent a higher band.

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