Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-22

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 5.0)

In this modern era, number of people started visiting well-known places to take some photos of themselves without knowing the place. This statement is true because due to viral trends and obessed with themselves. It represents negative impact in the development of cultural heritage and disrupt the local destination.

First of all, I think that people nowadays goes according to viral things which makes them to travel places. They are not interested in the place where they are travelling. They only needs good pictures and videos of themselves. For instance, many people goes according to trends when they see in social media as tiktok, instragram. Smart phones has become most desirable lifestyle.

Secondly, they are obsessed with their own activities which makes them feel, they think beautiful and capture themselves. The value of places is not so important rather than them. They focused on their angle with the ideal photos, they fail to connect with cultural heritage and monuments. This behaviour will create environmental problems.

In conclusion, the practice of visiting famous places simply to capture self portraits rised by the social media as viral trends. While taking pictures unnecessary stress experiences in the global destination.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.0
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.0

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response addresses both parts of the prompt, identifying reasons (social media trends and self-obsession) and expressing a negative view. However, the essay is significantly under the 250-word minimum, which severely limits the development of ideas. The arguments are presented in a very basic manner, lacking the depth and supporting examples required for a higher band. Because the response is 54 words short, the development of the topic is insufficient, leading to a lower score in this criterion.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. However, the use of cohesive devices is mechanical and sometimes inaccurate, such as 'First of all' and 'Secondly'. There is a lack of sophisticated linking words to connect ideas within sentences. The progression of ideas is somewhat repetitive, and the conclusion does not effectively summarize the points made, instead introducing new, slightly unclear phrasing like 'unnecessary stress experiences'.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary is limited and repetitive. Phrases like 'well-known places', 'take some photos', and 'good pictures' are basic. There are also errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'obessed with themselves' (should be 'obsessed with themselves') and 'rised by the social media' (should be 'driven by social media'). The range of vocabulary is not sufficient to demonstrate the precision required for higher bands, and the errors occasionally make the intended meaning slightly awkward.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay relies heavily on simple sentence structures. There are frequent grammatical errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ('people nowadays goes', 'Smart phones has become') and missing articles ('number of people', 'in social media'). Complex structures are attempted but are often faulty, such as 'which makes them feel, they think beautiful'. Punctuation is generally functional, but the grammatical inaccuracies are persistent throughout the text, which impacts the overall clarity of the writing.

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

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