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)
In today's world, technology plays crucial role in everyone's life. In several countries, people use online apps for paying their bills and it is increasing at alarming rate. This essay will discuss benefits and cons of this tread in upcoming paragraphs.
On the one side, there are numerous advantages of doing online transactions, because it is affordable and convenient. To explained, people can intract money from comfort of their homes without vistung bank or other financial institution. This not only save the time but also reduce transportation cost. Additionally, this technology offers people to save their transactions history in their smartphones for future refrences. For example, when individuals purchase something by cash and get printable receipts. There will be a chance to loose those receipt and people not able to return or exchange their items. However, with the help of online purchases, people can show their online platform history such as, bank apps, Apple pay and Emails to get exchange their goods.
On the other hand, there are some demerits of this trend as well. Although digital money makes people life easy, but it also raise chances of cyber crime day by day. Older community are unable to understand advance technology. For example, nowdays scammers uses some random links and text messages, people who are not aware of this fraud can click these links and loose their money.
To be concluded, there are no doubt cyber crime is becoming main issue to the society especially for elder people because they are not familiar with technology. However digital payments are still useful as people can use it anytime and anywhere.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0
The response addresses the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of paying with mobile phone applications. The student presents a clear position and supports their ideas with relevant arguments, such as convenience, saving time, and the risks of cybercrime. However, some ideas are slightly under-developed or contain logical leaps, such as the example regarding cash receipts and returns. Despite these minor limitations, all parts of the task are addressed adequately, fitting the criteria for a Band 6.0.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay is organized into four paragraphs, including an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion, showing a clear overall structure. Cohesive devices are used to signal transitions, such as 'On the one side', 'Additionally', and 'On the other hand'. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or mechanical, as seen in awkward phrasing like 'To explained' and repetitive sentence openings. Paragraphing is present and appropriate, but the logical progression within paragraphs could be smoother.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'alarming rate', 'financial institution', and 'cyber crime'. However, there are notable word choice and spelling errors throughout the text, such as 'tread' instead of 'trend', 'intract' instead of 'transact', 'vusting' instead of 'visiting', and 'loose' instead of 'lose'. These errors indicate a Band 5.5 level, as they occasionally cause slight strain for the reader, although communication remains clear.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including conditional and subordinate clauses. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are frequent errors in verb forms, prepositions, and article usage, such as 'technology plays crucial role', 'make people life easy', 'scammers uses', and 'there are no doubt cyber crime'. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to prevent the essay from reaching a Band 6.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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