Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-08-09

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In many parts of the world, people rely on private cars for transportation.

In what ways does reliance on private cars affect the way we live?

Do the effects tend to be positive or negative?

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

Student answer (Band 6.5)

A significant increment in number of people relying on private cars for commute has been observed in many parts of the world. Although it makes transportation convenient, it gradually increases the traffic and pollution which lead to detrimental impact on the environment.

To begin with, owning a private car undoubtedly make daily travelling easier, comfortable, and time saving. It gives more opportunity to use the that in more profitable manner. Additionally, long hours of travel in public transportation is often exhausting; as most of the times bus or trains are heavily crowded, whereas cars offer comfort and convenience. For instance, in China government has completely stopped the investments on public transportation rather the funds are used on improvision of roads and construction of highways and bridges to save time, which can be used more judiciously.

While, there are several benefits of owning personal cars, it also have some negative effects on our lives. Primarily, it often lead to heavy traffic congestions on the streets, which disturbs the local residents. Moreover, it fuels various kinds of pollutions. Noises coming from exhausts and horns often leads to noise pollution, which may even get unbearable for infants and older generation. Subsequently, the carbon emission adds to the air pollution that results in various problems such as ozone depletion due to greenhouse effect and global warming. To fortify, in Japan as a result of increasing traffic cases of respiratory diseases such as Asthma got a massive spike, as a result government has imposed strict on usage of carbon emitting gases in vehicles.

To conclude, despite the convenience and comfort of owing a personal car, the drawbacks such as heavy traffic congestion, increase in pollution can also not be neglected.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.5
Coherence and Cohesion6.5
Lexical Resource6.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy6.0
Overall6.5

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, identifying both the ways reliance on cars affects life and providing a clear stance on the negative consequences. The ideas are relevant, such as the convenience of personal transport versus the environmental and social costs. However, the development is somewhat uneven. The example regarding China is factually questionable and lacks a clear link to the prompt's focus on 'how we live,' while the Japan example is better integrated. To reach a higher band, ensure that examples are more universally applicable and that the discussion of the 'way we live' is more deeply explored beyond just traffic and pollution.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is logically organized into clear paragraphs, each with a distinct focus. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'To begin with,' 'Additionally,' and 'To conclude,' which help guide the reader. However, some transitions are slightly mechanical or awkward, such as 'To fortify,' which is not a standard cohesive phrase in this context. Referencing is generally clear, though the sentence 'use the that in more profitable manner' contains a grammatical error that disrupts the flow. Overall, the progression of ideas is coherent, but the use of cohesive devices could be more natural and varied to improve the flow between sentences.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, with some attempts at less common items like 'judiciously,' 'detrimental,' and 'ozone depletion.' However, there are several instances of awkward word choice and collocation errors, such as 'significant increment in number' (should be 'increase'), 'improvision of roads' (should be 'improvement'), and 'imposed strict on usage' (should be 'imposed strict regulations'). These errors occasionally impede the precision of the argument. To improve, focus on using collocations correctly and ensuring that word forms are accurate in context.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the writer attempts complex sentences, there are frequent grammatical errors that occur throughout the text. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('it also have some negative effects,' 'it often lead to'), missing articles ('in China government'), and awkward phrasing ('the that in more profitable manner'). While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding the message, they are frequent enough to limit the score. Increasing the accuracy of basic grammatical structures and refining the use of articles would significantly improve the overall quality.

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

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