Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-08-24

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)

Traffic congestion is one of the most concerned issues throughout the world. A great portion of population rely on their personal means of travel, which has both pros and cons. In this essay I will discuss both sides of this trend.

To begin with, a strong transportation system is of utmost necessity in today's fast paced world where time is as important as money. Nowadays many individuals prefer to travel through their own vehicles because it is time saving and convenient for them as public transit operates during specific times and sometimes runs slow or completely unavailable on weekends, which makes it unreliable for people. Therefore, public like to use their own cars to travel for convenience without having to worry about specific transit timings. In addition to this, public transit is unhygienic as multiple number of passengers travel throughout the day, many of them leaves their garbage on seats. Not only this, some people are allergic to pets or generally avoid them to prevent ticks and bugs, so many members of public choose to travel by their own vehicles instead of public transport as some individuals like to travel with their pets.

On the other side, if increasing number of population starts using their own means of travel with time it might result in significant surge in traffic congestion which will eventually leads to crowded roads, more accidents, increased environmental pollution and more gas consumption. For example, many great counties like Canada and the United States invested to build a strong and efficient transportation system to tackle problems like traffic congestion and environmental damage. In countries like this buses and trains are frequent as short as 3mins of waiting time, which encourage general public to utilize public transit.

To conclude with, people use their own vehicles because of the comfort it offers, so to encourage individuals to use public transportation governments should emphasize on improving the transportation system by launching more buses and trains in cities at the same time making it affordable. This development will solve various issues in society.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, discussing both the ways reliance on private cars affects life and whether these effects are positive or negative. The position is clear throughout. The ideas are relevant, such as the convenience of private vehicles versus the environmental and traffic-related drawbacks. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat uneven. For instance, the argument regarding hygiene in public transport is a bit anecdotal and could be better linked to the broader societal impact. While the response covers the requirements well, it lacks the depth of analysis required for a higher band, as some points are stated rather than fully explored.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The essay is logically organized into clear paragraphs, each with a central theme. There is a progression of ideas from the benefits of private cars to the negative consequences and a concluding summary. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'To begin with', 'In addition to this', and 'On the other side'. However, some transitions are slightly mechanical, and there are instances where the flow could be smoother. For example, the transition between the discussion of pets and the conclusion of the first paragraph is a bit abrupt. Overall, the paragraphing is appropriate and the structure is easy to follow.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The range of vocabulary is adequate for the task. The student uses some topic-specific terms like 'traffic congestion', 'public transit', and 'environmental pollution'. There are some attempts at less common vocabulary, but some word choices are slightly imprecise or unnatural, such as 'most concerned issues' (should be 'concerning') and 'multiple number of passengers' (should be 'a large number of'). Additionally, 'public like to use' is grammatically awkward; it should be 'the public likes to use'. While communication is never impeded, the lexical range is not sufficiently wide or precise to reach the higher bands.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors that occur throughout the text, such as 'many of them leaves' (subject-verb agreement), 'if increasing number of population' (missing article), and 'will eventually leads' (incorrect verb form). While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding the message, they are frequent enough to indicate a lack of full control over complex structures. To improve, the student should focus on subject-verb agreement and the correct use of articles and pluralization.

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

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