Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-04

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In the future all cars, buses and trucks will be driverless. The only people travelling inside these vehicles will be passengers.

Do you think the advantages of driverless vehicles outweigh the disadvantages?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

In my opinion, a future of all cars, buses and trucks being driverless or only having passengers inside has more disadvantages than what can be considered there advantages. As it has been seen numerous times throughout the history of AI, it's advantages has come with a number of unsatisfactory results such a large base of unemployment, the amount of time needed to build the auto-pilot to it's perfection and finally begin able to fully rely on it in every possible situation. In today's time if not all a very high percentage of the population is working as bus, trucks or even cab drivers either as full time work to provide for their needs or as part time to safe something which gets dealt a massive hit from the implementation of self-driving cars. Not only that but there have been various incidents where a self driving car has not stood to the expectations people have for them. I, myself have seen various incidents where a self-drive car's sensors have stopped functioning or were unable to perform as well as they are supposed to causing a whole lot of trouble. Moreover, another factor that comes to my mind is the ability to make innate decisions is something AI cannot handle there is always is a scenario or problem which even a whole well written program cannot handle. The cost of implementing/maintaining is also important since such programs would require a whole new network which with one malware or mistake could interrupt the whole task of auto-piloted vehicles. So in simple words I do not think that the advantages of self driving vehicles outweigh the disadvantages.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses the prompt and maintains a clear position throughout, arguing that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. The ideas presented—unemployment, safety concerns, and the limitations of AI decision-making—are relevant. However, the development is somewhat limited. The essay is presented as a single block of text, which hinders the logical development of ideas. While the arguments are clear, they could be more thoroughly extended with specific examples or deeper analysis. The response meets the requirements of the task, but the lack of paragraphing and the somewhat repetitive nature of the arguments prevent it from reaching a higher band.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The most significant issue here is the lack of paragraphing. The entire response is written as one long paragraph, which makes it difficult for the reader to follow the progression of ideas. While there are some cohesive devices used, such as 'Moreover' and 'So in simple words', the overall structure is mechanical. The flow of ideas is somewhat disjointed because the transition between the economic argument (unemployment) and the technical argument (safety/sensors) is abrupt. To improve, the student should use clear paragraph breaks to separate the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing the student to express their ideas clearly. There are some attempts at less common vocabulary, such as 'innate decisions' and 'implementation', but there are also instances of awkward phrasing and word choice, such as 'safe something' (likely meant 'save money') and 'stood to the expectations'. The range is sufficient to communicate the main points, but it lacks the precision and flexibility required for a higher band. The student should focus on improving collocations and ensuring that words are used in their correct context.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede the flow, such as 'it's advantages has come' (subject-verb agreement and possessive error) and 'begin able' (should be 'being able'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with the use of apostrophes and commas. While the meaning is generally clear, the frequency of these errors suggests a lack of control over complex structures. To improve, the student should focus on proofreading for basic subject-verb agreement and ensuring that apostrophes are used correctly for possessives versus contractions.

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