Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-18

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 true that majority of individuals prefer to visit eminent places in order to take pictures of themselves these days. This essay intends to discuss the reasons behind this trend/phenomenon such as ( ) along with its negative and positive impacts.

To commence with, there are plethora/plenty of reasons to this trend. The major reason is that people want to maintain their status. To explain, nowadays, people are well educated and they are doing white color jobs in the domain of education, science, engineering and many more. As a result, they want to show their status in the society by posting photos of different famous places online. Another reason could be exploring distinct locations to enhance knowledge. To elaborate, technology plays a vital role in everyone's life, when people see the famous places online, they become enthusiastic to explore the beauty of that places. This means they want to get the first hand experience by visiting such places and upload the photographs

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 250 words, reaching only 163 words. This significantly impacts the development of ideas. While the essay introduces the topic and mentions reasons, the discussion is underdeveloped and lacks a clear conclusion or a balanced exploration of whether the trend is positive or negative. The prompt asks for both reasons and an opinion on the nature of the trend, but the response is too brief to provide the necessary depth or supporting examples required for a higher band. Consequently, the response is only partially addressed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay uses basic paragraphing and some cohesive devices, such as 'To commence with' and 'To elaborate'. However, the progression of ideas is limited by the brevity of the text. The use of placeholders like '( )' and slashes like 'plethora/plenty' indicates a lack of planning and a mechanical approach to cohesion. The referencing is sometimes unclear, and the overall structure feels incomplete, as the essay ends abruptly without a concluding paragraph to summarize the main points or provide a final stance on the trend.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for basic communication but lacks the range and precision expected for higher bands. There are instances of awkward phrasing, such as 'white color jobs' (should be 'white-collar jobs') and 'beauty of that places' (should be 'beauty of those places'). The use of slashes to offer alternatives like 'plethora/plenty' is inappropriate for a formal essay and suggests a lack of confidence in word choice. To improve, you should focus on using more precise collocations and avoiding informal or repetitive language.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation. For example, 'majority of individuals' lacks an article ('the'), and 'that places' is a plural agreement error. There are also issues with preposition usage and sentence construction. While the meaning is generally clear, the frequency of these errors prevents the writing from reaching a higher band. Focusing on subject-verb agreement and the correct use of articles would significantly improve the accuracy of your writing.

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

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