Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-02

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)

Nowadays, it is undeniable that in upcoming days, all types of transport including buses, cars and trucks will be operated without drivers and commuters will travel solely inside these vehicles. Although this technology has several drawbacks, from my perspective its advantages such as convenience and time-saving outweigh its disadvantages.

One of the main advantages of using this technology is that it is convenient mainly because people have no need to spend a large amount of money on learning driving and acquiring licenses. For instance, an individual might purchase an autonomous vehicle once only which will reduce the requirement of learning permit and driving strategies for an individual. Morever he can save that money and invest it on other tasks rather than learning it repeatingly. Another major benefit is that it saves a lot of time particularly for office workers and employers. For instance, an employeer might busy in his office work, he would perform a variety of tasks from it particularly exporting and importing different items such as collecting grocery from nearest market or submitting a document from one of the closest friends.

On the other hand, it has various disadvantages. One notable drawback is the chance of accident. The main reason is that driverless car is all depend on technology and human expertise.This technology would fail anytime and anywhere. For instance, an autonomous vehicle might be confused to choose correct path for travel between a congested road with vehicles and a road crowded with pedestrians. As a result, a severe accident would be occured. In addition, it would increase the number of theives as they can misguide the vehicle to steal something from it.

To sum up, although an autonomous vehicles would lead to major drawbacks from accidents to robbery, its benefits including its comfort and productivity outweigh its disadvantages mainly because technology could be enhanced and developed with time.

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, presenting a clear position that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. However, some ideas are under-developed or lack sufficient extension. For example, while the point about saving money on driving lessons is relevant, the explanation regarding investing in other tasks is somewhat simplistic. Similarly, the arguments concerning safety are somewhat generalised and repetitive, as seen when discussing how the technology might fail. To reach a higher level, the ideas would need to be more fully extended with deeper reasoning and more robust, realistic examples rather than vague hypothetical scenarios.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, dividing the introduction, body paragraphs for advantages and disadvantages, and a conclusion effectively. Cohesive devices are used to signal transitions, such as 'One of the main advantages', 'On the other hand', and 'To sum up'. However, the cohesion can occasionally feel mechanical or formulaic. Referencing is sometimes unclear, such as the pronoun 'it' in sentences like 'a variety of tasks from it particularly exporting and importing different items', where the grammatical links become slightly strained and obscure the logical flow. Progression is present, but more sophisticated and seamless linking between sentences would elevate the organizational quality.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, demonstrating an attempt to use less common items such as 'autonomous vehicle', 'commuters', and 'productivity'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors, word-choice inaccuracies, and spelling mistakes that prevent a higher rating, including 'Morever', 'employeer', 'repeatingly', 'theives', and 'depend' instead of 'dependent'. Collocations are sometimes awkward, such as 'submitting a document from one of the closest friends'. While communication is not severely impaired, these frequent slips in spelling and precision show a limited control over the lexical features expected at higher bands.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer employs a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting complex structures through conditional-like clauses and subordinate clauses such as 'Although this technology has several drawbacks, from my perspective its advantages... outweigh its disadvantages.' However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('driverless car is all depend'), tense inconsistencies, missing articles ('choose correct path', 'from accidents to robbery'), and preposition misuse ('invest it on other tasks'). Although these errors rarely impede overall communication, they occur with enough frequency to characterize the structural control at this particular level.

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

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