Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-27

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)

It is often asserted that future belongs to driverless cars. In my opinion there are far more advantages of such vehicles comapred to their disadvantages.

Contrary to human drivers which will have to spend some time eating and fulfilling their natural needs, these vehicles can work 24 hours a day without any break as long as their fuel and cooling system is taken care of, so saving huge maount of time. Another major advantage is the amount of money saved as these cars dont require frequent maintenace compared to salaries given to drivers. Recent report of US car manufacturing association showed that driverless cars have seen a rise in booking from 5% in 2020 to 27% in 2026. This shows a major shift in the US car market towards driverless transport.

However, there are many disvantages of these vehicles with safety being the most important one. Several incidents have happened due to malfunction of the elctronics of the vehicle with passenger being trapped in the vehicle. Some passengers were transported to wrong destinations due to internal fault of the car.

A recent survey in the UK shows the growing concern of people towards the future of driverless cars without anyone near to help. Another disadvantage is the unemployment of various human drivers which will create financial burden on them and compel them to take a serious criminal step to provide for their family.

In conclusion, despite of the safety and unemployment issue, these cars will bring new development in the world by making travel easier. I strongly assert that their advantages outweigh the disadvantages they possess.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of driverless vehicles, ultimately presenting a clear position. Ideas such as efficiency, maintenance savings, safety concerns, and unemployment are introduced and supported with examples, such as the US car manufacturing association statistics and a UK survey. However, some arguments tend to be slightly over-generalized or underdeveloped, placing the response solidly in the Band 6 territory. For instance, the claim regarding criminals due to unemployment lacks broader contextual nuance. Nevertheless, the main prompt question is fully answered.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay is generally coherent with a recognizable overall arrangement. Paragraphing is utilized to separate the introduction, advantages, disadvantages, and conclusion. However, cohesion is at times mechanical or faulty. Transitions like 'Contrary to human drivers which' and 'However, there are many disvantages' reflect standard cohesive patterns, but referencing and logical flow can be clunky. Paragraphing structure follows standard conventions, yet the internal progression within the body paragraphs occasionally feels abrupt, such as shifting suddenly from maintenance costs to a statistical report without smooth linking.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, with attempts to incorporate less common items like 'maintenance', 'malfunction', and 'unemployment'. However, there are notable spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'comapred', 'maount', 'maintenace', and 'disvantages', alongside collocation slips like 'take a serious criminal step'. While these inaccuracies do not severely impede communication, they prevent the lexical score from reaching Band 7. The range is sufficient to convey the student's ideas, but lexical control is inconsistent.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The student displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting relative clauses and conditional-like structures, as seen in 'As long as their fuel and cooling system is taken care of'. There are several grammatical and punctuation errors throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('human drivers which will have to', 'cars dont require'), missing articles ('with passenger being trapped'), and preposition errors ('despite of'). Despite these frequent errors, meaning is rarely obscured, aligning well with the Band 6 descriptor where simple and complex sentences are combined with some persistent errors.

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