Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-07

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

More and more people nowadays visit well-known places to take photographs of themselves, without looking at the place.

Why do you think this is happening?

Is it a positive or a negative trend?

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, many people visit at famous places for taking photographs of themselves instead of enjoying beauty of the place. Owing to this, I believe its just because of social media and this trend put a negative effect not only on society but also on whole country.

To commence with, people usually visit at well-known locations to capture photos because they want to post on social media such as instagram and facebook to show their friends that they have visited famous places . Nowadays its very easy to take photos by smartphones and they can use any effects on their photos. Another reason is that people wannt to get reviews and likes from social media on their videos and photos and having large amount of likes on photos then social media pay a money to people.For example, in India 60% people making money from instagram by posting photos and videos .

I believe this trend can have several deterimental effects. Firstly, people may fail to appreciate the beauty , history and culture of the places they visit. For instance, people spend huge time to take selfies at famous places instead of learning history and watch beauty of the place. Moreover, some people have pressure to take likes and reviws from social media..

In conclusion, social media is the primary reason why people taking pictures at famous places of themselves as compared to spend time with beauty of the place. However, it trend has negative effect because people miss the real experience while taking photos.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: the reasons for the trend and the evaluation of whether it is positive or negative. The position is clear from the introduction. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the claim that social media platforms pay users for likes is a significant generalization that lacks nuance or accurate supporting evidence. While the impact on the appreciation of culture is mentioned, the argument could be more deeply explored with more specific examples. The response covers the requirements but remains at a basic level of development.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'To commence with', 'Another reason', and 'Firstly', though some are used mechanically. There is a clear progression of ideas, but the flow is occasionally interrupted by awkward phrasing, such as the transition between the discussion of social media monetization and the impact on cultural appreciation. Referencing is generally clear, though the structure of some sentences makes the logical links between ideas feel slightly disjointed.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks the range and precision required for higher bands. There are several instances of awkward collocations and word choice errors, such as 'visit at famous places' (should be 'visit famous places') and 'deterimental' (spelling error). The student relies on basic vocabulary like 'huge time' and 'pay a money'. While the meaning is generally clear, the lack of variety and the presence of spelling errors prevent a higher score. More sophisticated vocabulary related to tourism, digital culture, or psychological impact would improve the score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede the reader. Common issues include missing articles ('on whole country'), incorrect preposition usage ('visit at'), and subject-verb agreement errors ('60% people making money'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, with unnecessary spaces before periods and commas. While the student attempts complex sentences, they are often marred by errors. The control of grammar is insufficient to reach the 6.0 level consistently, as the frequency of errors is high.

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