Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-08-17
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
The ease of international travel and the spread of various kinds of mass media all over the world have made it more possible than ever for people to know how other people live in other countries.
Do the advantages of this development outweigh the disadvantages?
You should use your own ideas, knowledge and experience and support your arguments with examples and relevant evidence. Write at least 250 words.
Student answer (Band 5.5)
In recent years, the travelling across the world became easier than early and the development of technology taken place in the field of mass media. The ease of the world wide tour and the spread of different kinds of mass media makes possible for people to know about the people who live in other countries. In this essay i will discuss the advantages and disadvantages and i feel that disadvantages outweigh the advantages.
Firstly, the international travelling is something to exploring new places across the world, which allows the individual to expand their knowledge and experience about international countries. There are countless benefits of travelling world wide. For instance, the individual can gain knowledge about the culture and historical places of a particular country, likewise they can also explore on the living pattern of the people of foreign country. Moreover, as the technology is expanding, they can share their experience to other individuals by using mass media vey easily. Other people can connect with them or can feel them by seeing or reading about them in mass media.
Secondly, the individuals who can not go for the international tour because of the many reasons. For example, the people who are not financially stable, they can not afford international trips easily. In that case some individual can see the others on social media travelling across the world and having deep mental breakdown because of not able to afford the same trip for self. Some people might go through self-droughting and feels not capable enough to fulfill the self dreams. Ultimately, at some point by seeing others the major anxiety and mental breakdown can occur because of mass media.
In conclusion, from my standpoint the disadvantages of this outweighs the advantages by making individuals more anxious and giving them mental breakdown because of seeing others travelling across the world on mass media.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The essay addresses the prompt by discussing both advantages and disadvantages, maintaining a clear position that the disadvantages outweigh the benefits. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited. While the benefits of travel are mentioned, the explanation is brief. The argument regarding the disadvantages focuses heavily on 'mental breakdown' and 'anxiety' caused by social media, which is a valid point but lacks depth and nuance. To reach a higher band, you should provide more concrete examples or explore the societal implications of this phenomenon more thoroughly rather than repeating the same point about anxiety in the final paragraph.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is organized into clear paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the argument. You use basic cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', and 'In conclusion' to signal the structure. However, the flow between sentences is sometimes mechanical, and the use of referencing is occasionally unclear (e.g., 'they can share their experience to other individuals'—it is not immediately clear who 'they' refers to). To improve, try to use a wider variety of linking words and ensure that pronouns clearly refer back to the intended nouns to improve the logical progression of your ideas.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks precision and sophistication. You rely on repetitive phrasing, such as 'international travelling' and 'mass media'. There are also some awkward collocations and word choices, such as 'self-droughting' (likely meant 'self-doubt') and 'feel them' (which is unclear in context). To achieve a higher score, you should aim to use more precise academic vocabulary and collocations. For example, instead of 'travelling across the world became easier', you could use 'global mobility has become more accessible'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the essay that occasionally impede readability. Issues include subject-verb agreement ('the travelling... became', 'the development... taken place'), missing articles ('the individual can gain knowledge about the culture'), and awkward sentence structures ('the people who are not financially stable, they can not afford'). While you attempt some complex sentences, they often contain errors. To improve, focus on mastering basic sentence construction, particularly subject-verb agreement and the correct use of articles, before attempting more complex structures.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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