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)

Nowadays, majority of people exploring new famous places just to take photographs instead of making real life experiences. Due to the social media, this fast growing trend is decreasing the significance of famous historical places because people are not paying attention to the history of the place. Taking pictures is good thing but using it to gain attention is not good thing.

First and foremost reason, behind this notion of visiting places and taking pictures of best view is that people want to impress the social media audience to get fame. In addition, social applications now paying money for more views so people are going to famous places to take best pictures of them and they are ignoring the historical background of the place. As a result, they will forget to enjoy the nature and beautiful surrounding and will ignore the real meaning of enjoyment.

Secondly, people are doing materialistic things just to show off their fake followers and promoting the places for money, which are not worth to go to. This photography idea is good that they are making memories but they will not remember the real feeling when they will look at the pictures in future.

In conclusion, taking picture of famous places is good but people should not ignore the historical value of those places they visit. It is a primary responsibility of individuals to respect the authenticity of the place and spread good message about the value of the place.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt, identifying social media and financial incentives as reasons and expressing a clear negative view. However, the essay falls short of the 250-word minimum requirement, which limits the depth of development. The ideas are somewhat repetitive, particularly regarding the desire for fame and the lack of appreciation for history. To reach a higher band, you should expand on your arguments with more specific examples or deeper analysis of the psychological impact of this trend, rather than restating the same points in different ways.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, each with a clear focus. You use basic cohesive devices such as 'First and foremost', 'In addition', 'Secondly', and 'In conclusion' to signal the progression of your argument. However, the flow between sentences is sometimes mechanical, and the referencing is occasionally repetitive. The transition between the reasons for the trend and the evaluation of whether it is positive or negative could be smoother. Improving the variety of linking words and ensuring that each sentence builds logically upon the previous one would enhance the overall coherence.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks the range and precision required for higher bands. You rely on somewhat generic phrases like 'good thing' and 'materialistic things'. There are also some minor collocation issues, such as 'making real life experiences' (should be 'having' or 'gaining') and 'best view' (should be 'the best views'). To improve, try to incorporate more sophisticated vocabulary related to tourism, social media culture, and psychological motivations, and focus on using words in their correct collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, such as missing articles ('the' majority, 'the' social media), subject-verb agreement issues ('social applications now paying' should be 'are paying'), and awkward phrasing ('which are not worth to go to'). Punctuation is generally functional, but the sentence structure could be more varied. To improve, focus on mastering article usage and ensuring that complex sentences are constructed with greater grammatical precision.

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