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)

As technology is become a common part of our daily life these days, there are possibilities of driverless cars,buses, and trucks. The passengers will only be the ones present in these vehicles with no driver. As this is becoming a common concern for almost everyone, i personally believe the advantages of it do not overweigh the disadvantages because driving is a full-time life-time responsibility and it is quite a discomfort to depend on a feelingless operator instead of a person.

Although, a driverless vehicle is beneficial in terms of independency and freedom. For instance, a person who lacks a driving license or is disabled will eventually find this a best alternative to reach at workplace in time. Also, he has to put zero energy towards it as the car will move by itself, taking to the desired location.

Consequently, there are come downsides of a remote vehicle, comparable to the one with a driver is a sense of security and emotionless driving. For example, a person sitting in a driverless car will be more dependent on machine's awareness to avoid any road accidents, causing a full time discomfort on the road. Furthermore, there are possibilities of mishaps on the road, leaving the passenger only in trouble. Despite being a driver, the person himself is responsible for any thing happened while being in a traffic. The machine is not penaltied or hold accountable for such consequences.

As there are some guaranteed advantages to driverless vehicles, my opinion strongly approves that its drawbacks are more in contrast to its benefits.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The student addresses the prompt by discussing both advantages and disadvantages of driverless vehicles and clearly states a personal position that disadvantages outweigh advantages. The ideas, however, are somewhat limited and underdeveloped, often relying on generalized statements rather than deep elaboration. For instance, the discussion on independence is relevant but brief, and the points regarding safety and accountability are repetitive in structure. While the prompt is addressed and a position is maintained throughout, the depth of extension places the response firmly in Band 6. To reach a higher band, the student should expand on specific examples, such as concrete economic, ethical, or urban planning implications, rather than repeating general notions of discomfort.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing: an introduction, two body paragraphs representing different aspects, and a conclusion. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. Transition words like 'Consequently' are used inappropriately, as the subsequent point about downsides is a counter-argument rather than a logical consequence of the previous point about advantages. Furthermore, referencing is occasionally unclear, such as shifting pronouns confusingly. Paragraphing is present, but internal cohesion lacks smooth transitions, justifying a Band 5.5 score.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'independency', 'accountable', and 'consequences'. However, there are noticeable word-choice and collocation errors, such as 'is become' instead of 'is becoming', 'life-time responsibility' instead of 'lifelong responsibility', and 'penaltied' instead of 'penalized' or 'held liable'. Phrasing like 'taking to the desired location' misses a reflexive pronoun. While these lexical slips and errors do not entirely impede communication, they reflect the characteristics of Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some variety. However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text that cause some difficulty for the reader. Examples include tense and auxiliary errors ('As technology is become'), prepositional misuse ('reach at workplace'), missing articles ('taking to the desired location'), and awkward phrasing ('comparable to the one with a driver is a sense of security'). Punctuation also suffers from spacing issues, such as missing spaces after commas ('cars,buses'). Because errors are frequent and recurrent across various structures, the grammar aligns with Band 5.0.

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

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