Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-02
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 5.0)
Yes, many countries are using mobile apps to pay their bills and make payments. I think this development has more advantages than disadvantages. But some older people do not like to use the app to make payments. Its depend most of the new genration do adapt this facility and like hasel free work. I gave you an example. These days, most of the people have smartphones, and they all have many kinds of payment apps on their phones for regular use. Because sometimes you forget your wallet. But you have a phone; you can add your digital card to it, and with one tap, your payment is done. You can add any type of Payment apps in your phone, or you can add your bank details to those apps than you can easily use and pay your bills and any kind of payments through those apps.
In the starting days when these apps was launched. that time these was tricky. Because some time your payments did not go through properly and takes few day to complete it and some fake apps also there who stolen your money but when times goes on, companies make changes and update their apps so nobody can be pissed off with this and they also introduce security system who protect your personel data and money. so i think these app more advantages than disadvanages.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
Your response partially addresses the prompt by expressing a clear opinion that mobile payment apps have more advantages than disadvantages, and you include relevant personal experiences such as forgetting your wallet. However, your word count is 229 words, which fails to meet the minimum requirement of 250 words, negatively impacting task completion. Your ideas are limited and somewhat under-developed, particularly when discussing disadvantages like older people struggling or security issues, which are brushed over quickly rather than fully extended. To reach a higher band, you need to expand your word count past the minimum and provide fully developed, well-supported arguments for both sides before making your final judgment.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0
Your essay displays some basic organization with a clear opening stance, but there is a lack of clear overall progression between sentences and paragraphs. The text is broken into only two paragraphs, and the second one is a very long block of text containing multiple shifts in ideas, moving from early app issues to security improvements abruptly. Furthermore, your use of cohesive devices is mechanical and sometimes inaccurate, such as starting a sentence with 'I gave you an example.' or relying heavily on repetitive transition words like 'because' and 'so'. To improve, you should use paragraphing more effectively to separate distinct ideas and employ a wider range of appropriate logical connectors to guide the reader smoothly through your arguments.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
You use a limited but minimally adequate range of vocabulary suited to the topic of mobile payments, including terms like 'smartphones', 'digital card', and 'bank details'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors, awkward word choices, and spelling mistakes throughout the text, such as 'genration', 'hasel free', 'Payment apps' (unnecessary capitalization), 'stolen', and 'personel data'. These errors occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader and reflect a basic control of word formation and spelling. To move up to the next band, you should incorporate a wider variety of less common vocabulary and idiomatic phrases with greater precision and accuracy in spelling and collocation.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
Your writing demonstrates a limited range of sentence structures, relying primarily on simple sentences and basic compound structures joined by conjunctions like 'and' or 'so'. When you attempt more complex structures, they are frequently faulty, as seen in sentences like 'Its depend most of the new genration do adapt this facility' and 'In the starting days when these apps was launched. that time these was tricky.' You also make frequent errors in subject-verb agreement ('apps was'), verb tenses, punctuation (sentence fragments like periods used incorrectly instead of commas), and prepositions. These frequent errors can cause difficulty and distraction for the reader. To achieve a higher band, you must produce a wider mix of error-free complex sentence forms with better control over grammar and punctuation.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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