Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-15

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, people visit famous places to photograph themselves without exploring the place. I believe this is happening because of social media influence and online earnings . This i believe is a negative trend and should be discouraged.

To begin, many people these days leave the comfort of their home to beautiful sites or places just to capture pictures of themselves in those background without necessarily making most of the place. This is now a common occurance in our world today because people want to live the social media fake lifestyles, capturing fake moments that never really happen, increasing their content creation through it and at the same time earning from the views, engagement and activity. A very good example is seen in the tiktok app, facebook app and other social handles where people take pictures in beautiful famous places so as to grow their page and earnings.

Subsequently, these creates unnecessary pressure and stress on the people. The pressure to keep posting pictures in beautiful background has bankrupted some individulas, while making some engage in some malicious and immoral activities just to keep up with funding the fake-life pictures. For example, many young girls are into prostitution to keep up their fake life of pictures in private jets, vacation in maldives and the likes.

Furthermore, the young men now engage in several vices like yahoo, cultism, money rituals, kidnapping, to mention but a few just to met up with sponsporing this lifestyle and that of their female partners.

In conclusion, people travel to tourist places not for tourism but to be photographed in the background just to feed their social life and staus. This has greatly impacted negatively on the people and community by increasing social vices and as such should be disco

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, identifying social media influence and online earnings as reasons for the trend, and clearly stating a negative position. The ideas are relevant and supported with examples, such as reference to platforms like TikTok and Facebook, as well as societal consequences. However, some arguments, particularly regarding extreme criminal activities like kidnapping and cultism, tend to over-generalise and border on hyperbole, lacking nuanced development. Furthermore, the response is incomplete, cutting off abruptly at the end with the word 'disco'. Despite this truncation, the main components of the task are addressed, earning a Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a generally coherent overall arrangement with clear attempts at paragraphing and sequencing. The writer uses basic cohesive markers such as 'To begin', 'Subsequently', and 'In conclusion' to signal the progression of ideas. However, referencing is sometimes unclear, as seen in the phrase 'these creates' where the antecedent is ambiguous. Additionally, because the final paragraph cuts off mid-sentence ('disco'), paragraphing and overall logical flow are disrupted at the very end. Cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or overused in a formulaic manner. These issues place the response solidly at Band 5.5.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'occurance' (spelled incorrectly as occurance), 'malicious', and 'engagement'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, including 'individulas' instead of individuals, 'met up' instead of meet up, and 'staus' instead of status. Collocations are sometimes awkward, such as 'fake life of pictures'. While communication is not severely impeded, these lexical inaccuracies prevent the essay from reaching a higher band, making a Band 5.5 appropriate.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('these creates unnecessary pressure'), spelling mistakes ('occurance', 'individulas'), and awkward punctuation. Furthermore, the abrupt termination of the final sentence indicates a lapse in sentence control and completeness. While the meaning remains mostly clear despite these errors, the density of grammatical and mechanical slips limits the score to Band 5.0.

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