Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-13

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)

In this modern era , I have seen that more and more people always preferred to visit a specific place which is well known for their photographs without even searching about that place like what is all that about because they just get influenced by social media and other people's videos on different platforms . I will share my point of view in the forthcoming paragarph.

On one side if we think about this so it is a positive thing that people visit those places which is well known just by watching some other person's videos of that particular place rather than even searching any info about that place . For example , if somebody loves travelling and they love to explore different places and take their photographs there in their life so its good for them to get to visit any well known place just by watching any person's video on social media and they visit there without even knowing well about that place and get to know more about after visiting there only and good photos of them too for lifetime memories .

Well , on the other side it can have negative impact too on some people as usually people who love to click their pictures at the well known places and then post on the social media just to show off in their life can actually influenced other people's mind that they get stressed about their life like they are not able to visit such places for their photos because of the work commitments or whether they live so far or cannot afford .

Therefore , my opinion genuinely is that I totally agree to paragraph recognizing the positive part of the topic .

In the end , I would say that its just upto our thinking only that we should not get influenced by anyone or the social media and be grateful for what we have or get in our life .

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the reasons for the trend of visiting famous places mainly for photographs influenced by social media and evaluating whether this trend is positive or negative. The writer presents a clear position, stating that it can be seen as both beneficial for experiencing new places and potentially negative for causing social comparison and stress. However, the ideas lack full extension and are somewhat repetitive, particularly in the body paragraphs where sentences run on without sufficient depth of examples. For instance, the discussion of the negative impact touches upon 'show off in their life' and stress, but remains underdeveloped. This aligns best with Band 6.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt to address each part of the prompt in separate sections. However, the progression is hindered by poor paragraphing, notably the single massive sentence used for the second body paragraph and the awkward concluding remarks. Cohesive devices are used, but they are often repetitive ('On one side', 'Well, on the other side', 'In the end') and sometimes mechanically applied. Furthermore, referencing is occasionally unclear, such as 'I totally agree to paragraph recognizing the positive part', which confuses the overall logical flow. These issues place the response firmly at Band 5.5.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to communicate their basic ideas about travel, social media influence, and stress. There are attempts to use less common items and phrases such as 'work commitments', 'lifetime memories', and 'social comparison' conceptually, but the writing is marred by frequent word choice and collocation inaccuracies, such as 'always preferred to visit', 'searching any info about that place', and 'actually influenced other people's mind'. Spelling is generally acceptable, but the overall range and precision of vocabulary remain limited, preventing the score from reaching a higher band. This performance is reflective of Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The text contains a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but the writer relies heavily on extremely long, run-on sentences joined by coordinating conjunctions and relative clauses (e.g., the second body paragraph consists of just one extremely lengthy sentence). This lack of proper punctuation and segmentation leads to frequent grammatical errors, such as missing articles, tense inconsistencies ('it can have negative impact', 'that they get stressed'), and faulty dependent clauses. Although the meaning is mostly decipherable, the frequency of structural errors and punctuation lapses prevents the response from achieving a Band 6.0, fitting the Band 5 descriptors.

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

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