Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-13

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 contemporary era, technology plays a significant role in human's life. Numerous individuals think that nowadays people are using more digital method for paying their purchasing items rather than paying by cash in my nations. Although this trend has more advantages such as convenience and protection, I think that it has some disadvantages also like fear of hacking. This essay will discusse both advantages and disadvantages in the upcoming paragraphs.

On the one hand, there are numerous benefits of paying for things by mobile phone apps. First of all, People are exteremely busy in their life. They are becoming dependable on technology. In other words, people wants convenience in thier life as it is easy to install cards on smart phones instead of taking cash on side. Furthermore, some people have fear about the robbery of cash. Sometime, cash may be lost or theft and they may lose the possibilty of give money back. However, if money may send on wrong number, they have a clue and bank will be provide them money back. Usually, people face a large number of queue during payment by cash which cause they lose their plenty of time. As a result, due to convenience and time saving method, people more prefer digital payments.

On the other hand, this trend has some negative impacts also. The primary disadvantage is numerous elder generation may not be happy with this trend. This is because, they are not familiar with the latest payment method so they are dependent on traditional method rather than latest one. Moreover, some people do not want to show their transaction history to the government as they keep their trancations privately so they may suffer from losing privacy.

In conclusion, although there are some disadvantages of this trend such as privacy concerns and lack of knowledge about the modern payment method by elder people, I think that these have more advantages such as conveninence an.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address the question by discussing benefits and drawbacks, and your position is clear: you believe the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Convenience, saving time, cash theft, older people’s unfamiliarity with apps, and privacy are relevant points. However, some ideas are not fully explained or are unclear. For example, the claim that a bank can return money sent to the wrong number needs qualification or an example, and the privacy concern is mentioned without explaining its consequences. The conclusion restates your view, but it ends abruptly and does not complete the final comparison. Develop each main point with a clear explanation or specific example, and finish with a complete concluding sentence.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for advantages and disadvantages, and a conclusion. The contrastive signposts “On the one hand” and “On the other hand” help readers follow the main progression, and “First of all” and “Furthermore” introduce supporting points. This meets the lower-band expectation of coherent organisation and shows some of the flexibility associated with stronger cohesion. However, several links feel mechanical, and the advantages paragraph moves quickly between convenience, theft, mistaken transfers, and queues without clearly grouping or developing them. Some references, such as “these” in the conclusion, are not fully precise. Use fewer formulaic transitions and connect each example explicitly to the point it supports.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “digital payments,” “transaction history,” “privacy,” and “robbery.” There are also attempts at less common phrasing, such as “contemporary era” and “primary disadvantage.” However, the range is limited and several noticeable word-choice, collocation, word-form, and spelling errors make parts less natural or occasionally unclear: “dependable on technology,” “possibility of give money back,” “trancations,” and “conveninence.” Some phrases are also imprecise, such as “install cards on smart phones” and “show their transaction history to the government.” Build a more accurate set of payment-related collocations and check spelling and word forms carefully; this will make your meaning clearer and more fluent.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentences, including a concession in “Although this trend has more advantages…” and a reason clause beginning “This is because…”. This gives the response some structural variety, and the main message is generally understandable. However, control is inconsistent, particularly in longer sentences. Examples include “people wants convenience,” “which cause they lose,” and “the bank will be provide them money back”; these show problems with agreement, clause construction, and verb forms. Articles and sentence boundaries also need attention, as in “during payment by cash.” Practise building accurate subject–verb–object sentences first, then add one subordinate clause at a time. Proofread each sentence for agreement and verb form, especially when using modal verbs or “will.”

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