Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-11

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)

It is often said that, social media has been booming from past few years. There any numerous exploration places in this world for visit. When any individual visits that places, they focus on capturing their photographs without exploring place around them. I will explain the reasons behind this development and also give my opinion.

There are several reason behind this thing. Firstly, It has been becoming trend to post well captured pictures from well-known places on any social media platforms. Nowadays, anyone can earn money from internet platforms where they just need to have enough followers and attractive stories or posts on their pages. For example, creators try to make attractive reels, photos or videos of themselves at most famous location. When their posts become viral, other people also want to same do same thing. Moreover, individuals are spending their most of their time on the phone even at good places. They just take some pictures of themselves and leave the places afterward.

Although, Social media is one of the best way to make money for anyone, it is also important visit places, learn about history and explore artistic work from past which can definitely enhance knowledge of anyone. For instance, there are many historical places in ahmedabad which is famous for it's history as well as highly keen work of past workers. From that places, we get to know about local past which is important for future developments as we can use their techniques and strategy.

In conclusion, There are many benefits of posting personal photographs on social media. However, exploring a places in deep is also beneficial. I think this development is largely positive if individuals capture whole place with their beauty and exploration part.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: the reasons for the trend and whether it is positive or negative. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited. While you mention social media and financial gain as reasons, the explanation of why this is a 'negative' trend is less developed. You touch upon the importance of history, but the argument could be strengthened by discussing the loss of genuine experience or the superficiality of modern travel. The conclusion is a bit contradictory, as you label it 'largely positive' while your body paragraphs focus on the benefits of deep exploration, which implies a negative view of the current trend. A more consistent position would improve the score.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organised into logical paragraphs, each with a clear focus. You use some cohesive devices like 'Firstly', 'Moreover', and 'In conclusion' to guide the reader. However, the flow between sentences is sometimes mechanical, and there are instances where referencing is unclear, such as 'that places' or 'from that places'. The transition between the reasons for the trend and your opinion on whether it is positive or negative could be smoother. Improving the variety of linking words and ensuring that pronouns clearly refer back to their antecedents would help achieve a higher band score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'social media platforms', 'viral', and 'historical places'. However, there are several instances of awkward phrasing and word choice errors, such as 'booming from past few years' (should be 'in the past few years') and 'keen work of past workers' (which is unclear). Some vocabulary is repetitive, such as the frequent use of 'places'. To reach a higher band, you should aim for more precise collocations and a wider variety of descriptive language to express your ideas more naturally.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with articles ('the internet', 'the world'), pluralisation ('there any numerous'), and subject-verb agreement ('it has been becoming trend'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, with unnecessary commas used in several places, such as after 'Although' and 'In conclusion'. While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding your meaning, they occur frequently enough to impact the overall fluency of the text. Focusing on basic sentence construction and proofreading for small errors would be beneficial.

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.