Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-30

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 this modern era technology is advancing day by day. The use of artificial intelligence in basic amenities is becoming common nowadays. A good example is driverless vehicle. Technologist believe that in the near future cars, buses and trucks will be fully operated without human involvement and the only people travelling will be the passengers. This notation has far more disadvantages than benefits and will be discussed below.

To commence with, many countries are still inflicted with unemployment and driverless vehicles will directly target the jobs of taxi drivers, bus drivers as well lower middle class individuals who only have driving their single income. For instance, global reports deduce that more than 80 percent middle class families rely on driving as their only source of money. Hence these automated vehicles will destroy their livelihood.

Furthermore, technology is itself made by humans so there are chances of sudden disruption in the vehicles because of any type of technical failures. For example, recently it came in the news that an automated car lost its control on the national highway due to system failure which lead to the death of 2 people. Thus, a person can't be sure of such human advancements. Also, these vehicles operating on their own are also very expensive and out of the reach of ordinary people.

On the other hand, these advancements are also benefitting humans because they are easy to use. These cars do not need any training to operate and a person can easily enjoy his or her meal while travelling.

Finally, even though many new technologies are being developed and the world should stay upto date. But, these should not be done at the cost of human suffering. Therefore, such vehicles should not be made so as to make a person self sufficient and avoid any dependence on machines

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The student addresses all parts of the task by discussing both advantages and disadvantages, and clearly states a position in the introduction that disadvantages outweigh benefits. The ideas are relevant, such as job displacement and technological failure, although some points like the cost of vehicles or the advantage of eating while travelling could be more fully developed and supported with stronger elaboration. For instance, the discussion on unemployment correctly identifies a key social impact, yet the reasoning in the advantage paragraph feels somewhat simplistic. Overall, the response meets the criteria for Band 6.0 because it presents a clear position and addresses the prompt adequately, even though some ideas remain under-developed.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph structure, starting with an introduction, followed by body paragraphs addressing disadvantages and advantages, and concluding with a summary. The student uses standard cohesive devices such as 'To commence with', 'Furthermore', and 'On the other hand' to signal logical progression. However, some referencing is slightly faulty or mechanical, and the transitional flow between sentences can occasionally feel disjointed, such as the abrupt shift within the final paragraph. Paragraphing is used sufficiently, placing each main idea into its own paragraph. This level of organisation aligns well with the Band 6.0 descriptors.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'artificial intelligence', 'inflicted with', 'livelihood', and 'technical failures'. However, there are notable word-choice and collocation errors throughout the text, such as writing 'Technologist believe' instead of 'Technologists believe', 'single income' instead of 'sole source of income', and 'notation' instead of 'notion'. Spelling and word formation issues are also present, such as 'upto' instead of 'up to'. Despite these inaccuracies, communication is not impeded, placing the vocabulary firmly in the Band 6.0 category.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over structure with clauses introduced by 'even though', 'because', and relative pronouns. However, there are several noticeable grammatical errors and awkward phrasing, including 'technology is itself made by humans so there are chances', 'lead to the death' (instead of led), and punctuation issues. For example, the sentence starting with 'Finally, even though...' incorrectly fragments a subordinate clause from its main clause. While these errors occur regularly, they rarely impede overall communication, reflecting the characteristics of Band 6.0 grammar.

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