Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-06

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 6.0)

In recent years, payment through mobile applications has become increasingly common. While this development offer several advantages such as easy and very convenience to use, eco-friendly, no need to keep wallet or transferring money abroad, it also has certain disadvantages. This essay will examine both side of issue and explain how this is a postive development.

One of the main advantage of doing payment using mobile phone is that it is very convenient and eco-friendly. This is because it saves lots of tree to cut down to produce paper money. There is no need to keep wallet all the time and one should not to have a worry about stealing and losing the money. Another striking feature is that one can transfer money anytime, anywhere in the world in just blink of eye through the mobile application and also they can keep track of their transactions. For example, a mobile application named remitely assist to transfer money to another countries with different currency. It saves a lot of time because there is no need to go to embassy to exchange for currency when one can recieve money through mobile appication and pay for things one would like to buy.

On the other hand, most significant disadvantage to use mobile application for payment is online scams. With the advancement of technology now thieves have also changes their pattern, they have become online scammer. They do online frauds, scams to steal money if one is not careful with their passwords, authentication. For example, fishing is very popular scam in which scammer trick customer to purchase things online with heavy discounts and send them links, when one can click on that link they become their victims.

In conclusion, although paying bills using mobile application can provide significant benefits, particularly easy to carry, eco-friendly, record for transactions, it also has drawbacks, such as prone to frauds. Overall, I believe still it is very convenient and this trend will increase in future too.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.5
Coherence and Cohesion6.5
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.5
Overall6.0

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You address both sides of the question and make your position clear: the conclusion states that mobile payments are “still very convenient,” so you judge the advantages to outweigh the disadvantages. Relevant support includes convenience, tracking transactions, international transfers and online scams. The examples help illustrate these points, particularly the money-transfer app and phishing. However, some ideas are less fully developed than others. The environmental claim that digital payments “saves lots of tree” is asserted without explaining how this benefit compares with the environmental costs of digital technology, and the scam example focuses on shopping links rather than payment apps specifically. To strengthen the response, explain the impact of each point and connect examples more directly to mobile payments and your overall judgement.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall arrangement: an introduction, a paragraph on advantages, a paragraph on disadvantages and a conclusion. This makes the main progression easy to follow, and signposts such as “On the other hand” and “In conclusion” help distinguish the sections. Within the advantages paragraph, however, several points—environmental impact, security, international transfers and transaction records—are placed together with limited explanation of how they relate. Some linking is also mechanical, with repeated “one” and “also,” while the reference in “when one can click on that link” is awkward and briefly obscures who is acting. Group related ideas and use clearer references and transitions to show cause, example and result. This would make cohesion more flexible and the argument’s progression more precise.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “transactions,” “authentication,” “online scams” and “different currency.” There are also attempts at less common expressions, such as “striking feature” and “advancement of technology.” However, noticeable word-choice, collocation and spelling problems sometimes make the writing less natural: “easy and very convenience,” “saves lots of tree,” “fishing” for “phishing,” and “recieve” are examples. Some wording is repetitive, particularly “mobile application” and “scam,” and “do online frauds” is not idiomatic. Build accuracy by learning common word partnerships for this topic and checking spelling and word forms. More precise phrasing would improve clarity without requiring unnecessarily advanced vocabulary.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including a concession in the introduction (“While this development offer…”) and a relative clause in the example about scammers. The overall meaning is generally understandable, but errors in agreement, verb forms, articles and sentence construction recur. For instance, “this development offer” needs subject–verb agreement, “one should not to have a worry” has an incorrect verb pattern, and “when one can click on that link” does not fit the intended conditional meaning. There are also problems with plural forms and sentence boundaries in “they do online frauds, scams to steal money if…”. Review agreement and verb patterns, and practise writing conditional sentences accurately. Proofreading these patterns would make your varied structures more controlled.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.