Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-08-10

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people have decided to reduce the number of times they fly every year or to stop flying altogether.

Do you think the environmental benefits of this development outweigh the disadvantages for individuals and businesses?

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

In recent years, several individuals have decided to reduce the number of times they fly every year or to stop flying altogether. Although this view has certain drawbacks, I strongly believe that advantages outweigh the disadvantages for individuals and businesses.

One major advantages of this view is maintaining the good health. This is because frequently traveling by an airplane from one place to another will disturb the daily routine of an individual, especially when the flight duration consists of long hours or having connected flights. For example, if a person travel on frequent basis through flight, then he or she might not eat food on time and may affect the digestion system. This may cause the problems like acidity and loose motion. As a result, avoiding the flight may in turn helps in maintaining healthy life. Another benefit is lower travel expenses. Nowadays, majority of the fights have expensive tickets, which increases the overall travel cost. If a person choose other travel medium, then he or she might save a huge amount of money.

However, there are some drawbacks to consider. A significant disadvantage is increasing travel time. An airplane is the fastest means of transportation. For example, if a person has to attend an urgent meeting in another state or country, then the transportation medium apart from an airplane will take a lot of time to reach their destination. Therefore, if a person does not travel by an airplane then he or she may have to wait longer hours to reach their designated place.

In conclusion, by reducing the number of times traveling by an airplane or avoiding the flight altogether has a drawback such as longer travel time, it benefits in terms of maintaining good health and lower travel expense are more significant. Therefore, I believe that advantages of this view clearly outweigh the disadvantages for individuals and businesses.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt, but the focus is significantly skewed. The prompt asks about the 'environmental benefits' of reducing air travel, yet your essay focuses almost exclusively on personal health and travel costs. You mention the environmental aspect only in the introduction and conclusion, failing to develop it as a central argument. While you provide a clear position, the lack of discussion regarding the environmental impact (the core of the question) means the task is only partially addressed. To improve, ensure that your body paragraphs directly support the specific environmental benefits mentioned in the prompt, such as carbon footprint reduction, rather than focusing on personal health or individual financial savings.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into clear paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. You use basic cohesive devices such as 'One major advantage', 'Another benefit', and 'However' to signal transitions between ideas. However, the progression of ideas is sometimes mechanical, and the logical link between the environmental prompt and your health-focused arguments is weak. The concluding paragraph is a bit repetitive in its phrasing. To reach a higher band, focus on using a wider variety of linking words and ensure that each paragraph flows logically from the previous one, maintaining a tighter focus on the central theme of environmental impact.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing you to communicate your ideas clearly. You use some topic-specific terms like 'transportation medium' and 'travel expenses'. However, there are several instances of awkward collocations and word choice errors, such as 'maintaining the good health' (should be 'maintaining good health') and 'loose motion' (which is not standard academic English for digestive issues). You rely on fairly simple vocabulary throughout. To improve, try to incorporate more precise academic collocations and avoid repetitive phrasing. Expanding your range to include more sophisticated synonyms for 'advantages' and 'disadvantages' would also be beneficial.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with articles ('the good health', 'the digestion system') and subject-verb agreement ('avoiding the flight may in turn helps'). There are also issues with pluralization, such as 'one major advantages'. While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding your points, they occur frequently enough to impact the overall fluency of the writing. To improve, focus on proofreading for basic subject-verb agreement and article usage, and try to incorporate more varied complex sentence structures with greater accuracy.

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

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