Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Complete Catalyst · 2026-10-23

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)

Nowadays, people can enjoy the culture, the heritage, and the standard of living of other countries people with the help of easy access to international travel and mostly the benefit of mass media all around the world. Travel gives you an opportunity to witness by your own eyes and enjoy the natural beauty and culture of the country. Also, by not being present in this country physically, people can enjoy it by watching documentaries, YouTube videos, or shorts. So, I agree that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

Traveling to a new country always gives you an opportunity to closely align with their life and enjoy their natural beauty. Now people can easily go to a new country and live there for a while; this happens because of the easy access to international travel. Also, by traveling to a country, we also help enrich their culture and adopt new things. Though international tours require a huge amount of money, it is still an outstanding experience. For example, many people in our country went to Thailand on vacation to enjoy their time with their families.

On the other hand, some people who do not have the ability to go on international tours enjoy and learn about the culture of a country through the internet. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, many media channels telecast many documentaries about the culture, the tradition of a country. They donot have to spend a huge amount to money to watch these videos. Many people now know about other countries through using these media. For example, when I get some free time I watch other countries food culture on YouTube. Though heavy use of media can be addictive, it has a huge amount of benefits if it is used properly.

Everything has its own merits and demerits. But we have to use it carefully. International tours give us an option to enjoy our lives by watching other countries' heritage with our own eyes. Those who do not get the opportunity can enjoy this by watching on mass media.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

Your position is clear: you agree that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, and you discuss both travel and media as ways to learn about other countries. The examples of a family holiday in Thailand and watching food-related videos help make the ideas relevant. However, the response focuses mainly on how people experience other cultures, rather than weighing the overall advantages against the disadvantages. The drawbacks receive only brief mention—travel is expensive and media can be addictive—and neither is explored in depth. Some claims, such as travel helping to “enrich their culture,” also need explanation. Develop the comparison more explicitly by explaining why the benefits are more significant and supporting that judgement with specific consequences or examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a coherent overall arrangement: an introduction states your view, the next paragraphs discuss travel and media, and the conclusion restates the main position. Paragraphing helps readers follow these two main benefits, and transitions such as “On the other hand” signal a shift in focus. However, the progression is sometimes repetitive: the conclusion repeats the idea that people can experience other countries through travel or media without adding a final comparison. Some links between ideas are also unclear, particularly “by traveling to a country, we also help enrich their culture and adopt new things,” where the relationship between the two effects is not explained. Use clearer references and connect each example directly to the point it supports.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a relevant range of vocabulary, including “heritage,” “natural beauty,” “documentaries,” and “addictive,” which allows you to discuss travel and media clearly. There are also attempts at more descriptive phrasing, such as “closely align with their life.” However, several word choices and collocations are unnatural or imprecise, including “other countries people,” “enjoy the culture,” and “a huge amount to money.” Repetition of “enjoy,” “country,” and “opportunity” also limits flexibility. Choose more precise expressions for the ideas you mean—for example, distinguish learning about a culture from experiencing it—and check common word partnerships. These improvements would make your meaning more natural and exact without requiring unusually advanced vocabulary.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentences, including clauses beginning with “Though” and “when,” and most of the argument remains understandable. Some sentence forms are controlled, such as “Though heavy use of media can be addictive, it has a huge amount of benefits if it is used properly.” However, errors in sentence construction and grammatical forms recur. For example, “other countries people” needs a possessive structure, and “by not being present in this country physically” is awkwardly constructed. There are also issues with agreement and number in “many media channels telecast many documentaries about the culture, the tradition of a country.” Review possessives, articles, singular/plural forms, and sentence phrasing, then proofread for punctuation and spacing.

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