Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-21
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)
Air travel has become much popular in this modern era and alot of people fly for numerous reasons. It is often argued by some people that travelling by air has alot of advantages while other school of thought consider it a negative development. In my opinion, the merits of air travel outweigh the disadvantages for people and or their businesses.
Firstly, the predominent factor is that air travel has reduced the time and limited the dictances as its very fruitful for business meetings. For instance, i remembered that my uncle usually travels abroad for two to three times a month for their meetings with international dealers, and he's a rich and successful person of our siciety.
Secondly, the other advantge of this development is that air travel has opened alot of doors of opportunities for researsers and students because only by this source one can travel easily for his studies. For example, my superviser has moved to USA for higher education and he has helped me alot for the searching of scholorships and with his help i attented an international conference at Uk. Thus, advantage can clearly express my opinion in the favour of this blessing.
On the other hand, air travel can have some environmetal dreawbacks, it can create pollution and a cause of harmful gases in the atmosphere. If people reduce unnecessary flights then it can be reduced by maintaining the balance.
To conclude, i strongly agree that with the advent of air transport, the world has become global village and distaces has reduced but there should be a need of balance between flights.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The candidate addresses all parts of the prompt, expressing a clear position that the merits of air travel outweigh the disadvantages for people and businesses. The response is divided into supporting points, such as business efficiency and educational opportunities, and acknowledges the environmental drawbacks in the penultimate paragraph. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and relies heavily on personal anecdotes rather than broader arguments, which places the response securely in Band 6. While the counter-argument is briefly mentioned, it is not deeply explored. Overall, the task is addressed with relevant ideas, but greater extension and elaboration are required to reach higher band levels.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction and conclusion. Paragraphing is utilised to separate distinct points, such as business benefits and educational opportunities. Cohesive devices are employed, including sequence markers like 'Firstly', 'Secondly', and 'On the other hand'. However, referencing and transitions are at times mechanical or faulty, as seen in phrases like 'Thus, advantage can clearly express my opinion'. Furthermore, pronoun referencing can be slightly unclear, such as 'he's a rich and successful person of our siciety'. Progression is discernible, but cohesion lacks the flexibility and sophistication required for Band 7.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student attempts a range of vocabulary suitable for the task, including phrases like 'international dealers', 'higher education', and 'global village'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, such as 'alot', 'predookment', 'dictances', 'siciety', 'advantge', 'researsers', 'superviser', 'scholorships', 'environmetal', and 'dreawbacks'. These lexical errors and awkward collocations, such as 'limited the dictances' and 'cause of harmful gases', indicate a Band 5 level of control, where errors are noticeable and occasionally impede readability, preventing the score from reaching a Band 6.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The writer demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, attempting relative clauses and conditional forms, such as 'If people reduce unnecessary flights then it can be reduced'. However, frequent grammatical and punctuation errors occur throughout the text. These include capitalization errors ('i', 'Uk', 'USA'), punctuation mistakes (comma splices and missing commas), and grammatical inaccuracies like 'Air travel has become much popular' (missing 'more') and 'distaces has reduced' (subject-verb agreement). While communication is generally maintained, the density of basic and complex structural errors restricts the score to Band 5.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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