Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-22

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)

Development in technology makes digital wallet more popular in many countries. I think this development has more advantages and this essay will explain my reasons.

First of all, paying for things using mobile phone apps is very safe. People do not have to keep their heavy wallet with them all the time. So, there is very less chance of robbery. Also, people do not have to be concious everytime. People can pay exact amount without being worry about the exchange. Furthermore, people will have history of payment which works as a proof in the cases of fraud.

Another main reason for digital payment is its convenience.

It is very easy to use and you can transfer a huge amount of money within seconds. There is no need to count money repetatively. People at any age can use it without any fear of lossing it. Additionally, these type of payment apps give so many discount coupens to their users so people use those apps more.

On the other hand, this type of payment method requires internet all the time. Sometimes any problem in the server will not allow you to pay. Also, people have to be more careful about their mobile phones and technology because in recent times, so many fraud has been experienced by people and they can lost all their money.

In my opinion, eventhough there are some cons of online payment, it is more safer and convenient compared to traditional method.

In conlusion, I think that more people are using UPI apps more and it will completely replace the traditional method in the future.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both advantages and disadvantages of mobile payment apps and clearly states a position. The ideas presented are relevant, such as safety, convenience, and drawbacks like internet dependency and fraud risks. However, some of these ideas are under-developed and tend to over-generalize without sufficient specific examples from the writer's own experience or deeper elaboration. For instance, the points about discounts and server issues are mentioned briefly rather than fully extended. Despite these limitations, the task is adequately addressed, earning a Band 6.0 according to the descriptors for relevant ideas with some under-development.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear stance established in the introduction and reinforced in the conclusion. Paragraphing is used adequately to separate advantages, disadvantages, and the final opinion, though some paragraphs are quite brief. Cohesive devices are employed, such as 'First of all', 'Another main reason', 'Additionally', and 'On the other hand', but referencing and linking can sometimes feel mechanical or repetitive. For example, starting multiple sentences consecutively with 'People' detracts from the smooth progression of ideas. Overall, the organizational structure meets the criteria for Band 6.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'convenience', 'fraud', and 'traditional method'. However, there are noticeable word-choice and collocation errors, such as 'very less chance' instead of 'much less chance', 'concious everytime' instead of 'worried', 'discount coupens' instead of 'coupons', and 'lossing it' instead of 'losing it'. While these errors do not impede communication, they demonstrate a lack of precision that keeps the lexical score at Band 6.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing structures like conditional ideas and relative clauses ('which works as a proof'). However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including article misuse ('requires internet', 'in the cases'), prepositional inaccuracies, and awkward phrasing such as 'so many fraud has been experienced' where subject-verb agreement is flawed. Although these errors are noticeable and cause some minor difficulty for the reader, the meaning remains mostly clear, aligning well with the Band 5.5 to 6.0 profile. A score of 6.0 reflects a mix of sentence types alongside persistent structural errors.

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