Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-30

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 5.5)

In this modern era, people are mostly depend on private cars for commuting. This trend has great impact on humans life as this has raise their living standards as well as cost of living. This essay will elucidate both negative as well as positive effects of this trend in the upcoming paragraphs.

To begin with, nowadays people often use their cars to go to their work because it is more convenient and fast way for them to reach at work on time. Moreover, using personal cars for transportation also symbolizes the high level of living standard. For example, In India, big cities like Mumbai or Delhi people go to work on their personal vehicles so that they can avoid traffic and big rushes on the road.

On the other hand, this trend has some negative effect also because in today's world, everybody has their own vehicles which has increase the traffic on the road. In addition to that, having number of cars lead to the increase in the pollution which affect the quality of the life of people. It is very hard for the people to breathe because the quality of the air is poor. For instance, a recent survey has found in which they have seen the range of pollution is increasing day by day because of the number of cars on the roads.

To sum up with, it is undeniable that relying on the private cars ease the life of the humans but it has detrimental effect on the earth as well. As it leads to the pollution which affects the people health.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task, discussing both ways private cars affect our lives and evaluating whether these effects are positive or negative. The writer presents a clear position and supports ideas with general examples, such as mentioning commuting in big cities like Mumbai or Delhi. However, some ideas lack deep extension and tend to generalize quickly, which places the response securely in the Band 6 territory. For instance, the discussion on pollution and health is relevant but remains somewhat basic and underdeveloped. Nevertheless, the requirements of the prompt are fully met with an understandable stance throughout.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate positive and negative effects. Cohesive devices are employed to signal transitions, such as 'To begin with', 'Moreover', and 'On the other hand'. However, referencing and transitions are at times slightly mechanical or repetitive, and sentences within paragraphs could flow more smoothly together. For example, 'To sum up with' is an unnatural transitional phrase. Despite these minor lapses, the logical progression is clear enough to warrant a Band 6.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'commuting', 'symbolizes', 'convenient', and 'detrimental'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward collocations throughout the text, including 'people are mostly depend' instead of dependent, 'humans life' instead of human life, 'big rushes' instead of heavy traffic, and 'has increase' instead of increased. These errors indicate a Band 5 level in lexical resource, as word choice issues occur frequently, although communication is generally maintained.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and introductory phrases. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in tense, subject-verb agreement, and article usage. Examples include 'people are mostly depend', 'this has raise', 'has increase the traffic', 'having number of cars lead to', and 'affects the people health'. These persistent errors cause some difficulty for the reader and demonstrate limited control over complex grammatical structures, aligning with the Band 5 descriptors.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.