Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-14

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In a number of countries, some people think it is necessary to spend large sums of money on constructing new railway lines for very fast trains between cities. Others believe the money should be spent on improving existing public transport.

Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

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

 

Student answer (Band 4.5)

The paragraph shows that there are two type and they also think that large sum of money spend on constructing new railway lines and public transport.

In my opinion, there are two cases of spending the money for different purposes. In railway lines, if we spend the money for fast trains but the culture of travelling by trains is end now.The peoples are not prefer to travel by railways because it is very dangerous. In today life, there are many incidents are occur due to railway paths.There are many other things that cause incidents in the railway.

On the other hand, if we spend money on public transport it may be beneficial because the people are like to travel other cities by public transport now-a-days. The public transport is reliable and very comfortable for travelling in different cities. The peoples are like to go on the buses becaue they use to it. I personally prefer that travelling by buses because i travel to many cities by public transport.

But there are many peoples those like to travel by railway and many of them like to go by public transport. There opinion are change accoding to their experience. My experience is not awesome in the railway but in public transport my experience is very friendly and awesome.

I want to spend the sums of the money in the public transport because many peoples are use it. But there are many peoples those like to spent money in railway but i don't prefer it.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.0
Coherence and Cohesion4.5
Lexical Resource4.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy4.0
Overall4.5

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response addresses both views regarding high-speed railways versus public transport and attempts to provide a personal opinion, satisfying the basic requirements of the prompt. However, the development of ideas is limited and relies heavily on repetitive personal anecdotes rather than well-supported general arguments. For example, the student writes, 'In my opinion, there are two cases... My experience is not awesome in the railway.' The position is stated, but the arguments lack depth and tend to over-generalise without sufficient elaboration. Consequently, this performance aligns closely with Band 5 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.5

The text demonstrates some overall organisation with basic attempts to introduce contrasting views using transition markers such as 'On the other hand'. However, the logical progression is frequently disrupted by abrupt paragraph transitions and repetitive statements. Paragraphing is attempted, but individual paragraphs lack internal cohesion and cohesive devices are often inaccurate or overused. For instance, the transition 'But there are many peoples those like to travel...' creates disjointed connections between ideas. Referencing is sometimes unclear, particularly with pronoun usage, leading to an overall coherence that sits at a Band 4 to Band 5 level.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.5

The vocabulary used is basic and repetitive, frequently relying on simple terms such as 'money', 'travel', and 'experience'. There are noticeable lexical errors and inappropriate word choices throughout the text, such as 'culture of travelling by trains is end now' and 'incidents are occur'. Furthermore, spelling and word formation errors, such as 'accoding' and 'peoples', are frequent and occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader. The lexical range is minimally adequate for addressing the topic, best reflecting a Band 4.5 or Band 5 performance.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.0

The student uses a limited range of sentence structures, with most complex sentences containing fundamental grammatical errors. There is a high frequency of errors in basic grammar, including subject-verb agreement ('the people are like', 'there are many incidents are occur'), tense usage ('is end now', 'are change'), and prepositional phrases. These frequent errors cause significant strain for the reader, although basic meaning can generally be extracted. Control over punctuation is also weak, placing the grammatical accuracy firmly within the Band 4 descriptor range.

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

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