Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-19

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 5.5)

In this modern era, companies are investing a lot of their money to increase the quality as well as developing numerous features in their products. This has led people to buy apps to get proper access of features to mibile phones. This has become increasingly common to see all over the world. The subsequent paragraphs will explore does its benefits can dominant the drawbacks or not.

To begin with, products have been developing on the demands of their users where users want some specific features so they can get help from them for rise the advancement of the work as well as complete it on time. For instance, Chat gpt is free for everyone to use, but if people want to use it for getting extreme help for their work then Chat Gpt offers a premium version of it, which not enough expensive to buy and people buy it for their work. Further more, There are number of social media app, which provide individuals with extra features of security and professional tools to promote their businesses and videos of artists.

On the other hand, Buying multiple apps without any reason is wastage of the money. There are a lot of people who just buy these app to do show off their luxuarious lifestyle onto their other friends to be cool, which is not a good thing. For example, especially teenager who take step out of their house recently, they do show off for using premium badges on Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat just to display themselve as a premium user. Moreover, they buy subscriptions to get unlimted access and some products of games for their fun only.

In the conclusion, companies are focusing to expand their businesses while providing best features to their users. So they can use it for some purpose and people are getting number benefits from it. So its merits are dominating the drawbacks.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of paying for mobile applications, ultimately taking a clear position that the merits outweigh the drawbacks. Ideas are generally relevant, mentioning benefits such as enhanced features for work and productivity, and drawbacks such as unnecessary spending for social status. However, the interpretation of the prompt slightly drifts toward 'paying for apps' (in-app purchases and subscriptions) rather than strictly 'paying for things using mobile phone apps' (mobile payments/digital wallets). Despite this slight misinterpretation of the core theme, the student successfully extends and supports their ideas with examples such as ChatGPT and social media subscriptions. The arguments are adequately developed, earning a solid Band 6.0 according to the descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph-by-paragraph structure, including an introduction, two body paragraphs exploring opposite sides, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices are used to signal transitions, such as 'To begin with', 'For instance', 'On the other hand', and 'In the conclusion'. However, cohesion is at times faulty or mechanical. For example, referencing and linking phrases in sentences like 'The subsequent paragraphs will explore does its benefits can dominant the drawbacks or not' are awkward and grammatically flawed. Paragraphing is present and appropriate, but the lack of smooth logical progression and some repetitive phrasing limit the overall score. This performance aligns well with the Band 6 descriptors.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student attempts an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for the task, incorporating terms such as 'luxuarious lifestyle', 'subscriptions', 'unlimted access', and 'premium version'. However, there are numerous lexical and spelling errors throughout the text, including 'mibile' instead of 'mobile', 'luxuarious' instead of 'luxurious', 'teenager' instead of 'teenagers', and 'unlimted' instead of 'unlimited'. Furthermore, word choice and collocation are occasionally unnatural, such as 'do show off their luxurious lifestyle' and 'take step out of their house recently'. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they restrict the lexical score to Band 5.0, as the vocabulary remains somewhat limited and contains noticeable errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures such as relative clauses and conditional-like statements ('if people want to use it... then Chat Gpt offers...'). Nevertheless, frequent grammatical and punctuation errors are present throughout the text. Notable errors include subject-verb agreement issues and awkward clause structures, such as 'explore does its benefits can dominant the drawbacks' and 'There are number of social media app'. Other mistakes involve article usage and prepositional errors, for instance, 'get proper access of features' instead of 'access to'. Because these errors occur frequently and occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader while still allowing the core meaning to be understood, the response fits the Band 5.0 descriptors.

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

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