Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-10-03

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In the future, people may no longer be able to pay for things in shops using cash. All payments may have to be made by card or using phones. Do you think this will happen one day? Why do you think some people might not be happy to give up using cash?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

 

Student answer (Band 5.5)

In the future, individuals may no longer be able to pay for things in shops using cash. All payments may have to be made by card or with mobiles. Yes it will be happen one day for sure. I think that the merits are plentiful than demerits that will be discussed in the upcoming paragraphs. There are certain reasons behind this statement.

Commencing with the main reason which justifies that this will happen one day. The most prominent one is that, individuals like to use card or mobile phones. Because it is easy to go anywhere in the world and pay for the thing which they want. With cash it is not that easy they all avoiding cash because cash needs to carry properly everywhere and when they have cash with them cash needs extra care. But cards and mobiles phones very easy to carry. Apart from this, in phones or card millions of money people can bring to any place without any fear but if they want to buy a expensive thing in huge amount of money, they can not bring that much cash with themselfs.

However, with the growing of technology of mobile phone apps and debit or credit cards also fraud system is growing. Many scammers with the help of fake numbers call to anyone and ask the OTP and within seconds they fraud all the money from individuals accounts because of this many people do not want to give up using cash.

In conclusion, although in my opinion using card or mobile phones is the best thing for the future and many people are happy with this. Because the fraud is only happening with those who are not much intelligent. But now governemt making new strict rules so everyone can safe their money if any fraud scammers will call in the future.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both whether a cashless society will happen and why some people might feel reluctant to give up cash. Note that 23 words copied directly from the prompt were not counted towards the minimum length. Your position is generally clear, but the ideas remain limited and under-developed. For example, your exploration of why people prefer cards relies on repetitive phrasing rather than robust supporting points, stating simply that cash 'needs to carry properly everywhere' and takes extra care. Similarly, the counter-argument regarding fraud is introduced but lacks depth. To reach a higher level, you need to fully extend your arguments with detailed explanations and concrete real-world examples rather than brief, generalised statements.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays some overall organisation, including an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion, but it lacks a clear progression of ideas throughout. Cohesive devices are frequently inadequate, inaccurate, or overused, such as starting multiple sentences with 'Commencing with' or 'Because', which makes the transitions feel mechanical and repetitive. Paragraphing is attempted, but paragraph boundaries do not always group unified ideas logically, as seen in the sudden shift of focus within the final paragraph. To improve, you should ensure that referencing words like 'this' clearly point to preceding ideas, and use a wider, more natural variety of linking words to guide the reader smoothly between your arguments.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

Your vocabulary is limited but minimally adequate for the task. You attempt some less common items such as 'prominent', 'scammers', and 'governemt', but these are accompanied by noticeable errors in word choice, word form, and spelling that occasionally cause difficulty for the reader. For instance, phrases like 'millions of money', 'bring that much cash with themselfs', and 'fraud all the money' demonstrate non-standard collocations and grammatical forms. Additionally, spelling errors such as 'governemt' detract from the overall quality. To achieve a higher score, you must develop a broader range of precise vocabulary and pay closer attention to natural collocations and word forms.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response relies on a very limited range of sentence structures, featuring frequent errors that frequently cause difficulty for the reader. Your attempts at complex sentences are often faulty, as seen in fragmented or incomplete structures like 'Yes it will be happen one day for sure' and 'Because the fraud is only happening with those who are not much intelligent.' There are numerous issues with verb forms, tense consistency, and basic sentence boundaries, such as sentence fragments beginning with subordinating conjunctions ('Because...'). To progress, you need to demonstrate a better mix of simple and complex sentence forms while improving your control over basic grammatical agreements, punctuation, and clause structures.

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

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