Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-24
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)
Globalization has made the life easier to travel and look around and it is believed that people are more concerned about taking pictures of themselves rather than exploring the places they are visiting. I assume that social media is a prominent reason for this behaviour and no doubt it is a negative trend.
To begin with, social media offers the opportunity to post selfies and photographs to let the other people know about a person. In order to show off, people have to capture memories of themselves instead of looking famous places they visit. For instance, it can be seen at tourist attractions that people looks more curious about taking pictures. As a result, sometimes people forgets about the place.
Furthermore, it is a negative trend because people cannot enjoy the place if they are busy in themselves. Taking pictures assists to keep memories but they will be unable to collect the knowledge of that place.
To conclude, people are obessed with social media and they only give preference to upload their pictureswhich they collect while visiting a famous place
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The response fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 250 words, reaching only 180 words. This significantly impacts the development of ideas. While you address both parts of the prompt—explaining why this happens and stating that it is a negative trend—the arguments are underdeveloped. For instance, the explanation of why people prioritize photos over the experience is repetitive and lacks depth or specific, well-elaborated examples. To improve, you must expand on your points with more detailed reasoning and illustrative examples to ensure the response is fully developed as required by the task.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay is organized into clear paragraphs, which is a positive feature. You use basic cohesive devices such as 'To begin with', 'Furthermore', and 'To conclude' to signal the structure. However, the progression of ideas is somewhat limited due to the brevity of the text. The referencing is generally clear, but the flow between sentences could be improved by using a wider variety of linking words and ensuring that each paragraph contains a more substantial, cohesive argument rather than just a few short sentences.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary is adequate for the task but remains quite basic. You use some relevant terms like 'tourist attractions' and 'social media', but there is a lack of less common or more sophisticated vocabulary. There are also some minor errors in word choice, such as 'busy in themselves' instead of 'preoccupied with themselves' or 'collect the knowledge' instead of 'gain an appreciation'. To reach a higher band, you should aim to incorporate more precise collocations and a broader range of topic-specific vocabulary.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The response contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are several grammatical errors that occur throughout the text, such as 'people looks' (subject-verb agreement), 'people forgets' (subject-verb agreement), and 'pictureswhich' (missing space). Additionally, the phrase 'made the life easier to travel' is awkward. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to affect the overall accuracy. Increasing the variety of complex structures while focusing on subject-verb agreement and punctuation will help improve your score.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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