Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-18
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
Some people say that in the digital age, theatres and cinemas are no longer important as people can watch all the entertainment they want online. Others argue that theatres and cinemas are still important both economically and culturally.
Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Student answer (Band 5.5)
According to few people entertainment is easily accessible through digital media, due to which cinemas and theatres are less essential, while some people think that, they both are significant for the economy and culture. I believe that cinemas and theatres play an important role.
The advancement in technology has led to drastic change in the digital environment. Many people now rely on digital media such as, Netfix, Youtube and Disney plus. This has caused problem for the other entertainment industry such as cinemas and theatres. People would spend less money on digital platform, rather than spending more money in cinemas, as some cinemas are really expensive.
on the other hand, cinemas has better streaming quality and audio. Large amount of movie fans would spend money in these cinemas so that they can experience better quality of the movie. cinemas also helps the economy as many people spend money on these movie, and they prefer watching it in cinemas. There are limited amount of Imax cinemas in many countries, so most people would sometimes travel to different country just to experience the large cinema screens. Theatres and cinema connect people, as large communities gather to watch different movies based on their genre. However, theatres play significant role in shaping the stand-up comedy and also theatre plays. They both are necessary for boosting the economy and strengthening the communities connections.
In conclusion, there is huge amount of expansion of streaming platform and mostly people prefer to watch it online, but cinemas can still play a crucial role for the film and stage industry.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0
The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both views—the decline of physical cinemas due to digital streaming and their ongoing economic and cultural significance—while also providing a clear personal opinion. The student's position is stated in the introduction and maintained throughout. However, some ideas are slightly under-developed or contain minor generalisations, such as the claim that people travel to a different country just to see an IMAX screen. Supporting points are generally relevant, but could be pushed further with deeper explanation or more realistic examples. Overall, the requirements of the prompt are satisfactorily met, earning a solid Band 6.5.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion, fulfilling the basic structural needs of an essay. Paragraphing is used to separate the opposing views and the writer's perspective. However, cohesion is at times mechanical or faulty. For instance, the transition "on the other hand," is incorrectly capitalised as "on the other hand,", and referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the concluding sentence where pronouns like "it" lack a distinct, unambiguous antecedent. Cohesive devices are present, but their management could be smoother and more sophisticated to reach a higher band level.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms such as "accessible," "advancement," "streaming quality," and "genre." There are also attempts at less common vocabulary items like "significant," "strengthening," and "expansion." Nonetheless, noticeable lexical and collocational inaccuracies occur, such as "Netfix" (spelling error), "problem for the other entertainment industry" (singular/plural mismatch and awkward phrasing), and "communities connections" (incorrect noun adjunct form). These errors do not impede overall communication, but they prevent the score from rising into the higher bands.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The writer employs a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over sentence structure with clauses like "Many people now rely on digital media such as..." and "There are limited amount of..." However, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with subject-verb agreement ("cinemas has better streaming quality", "theatres play significant role"), article usage ("the other entertainment industry", "large amount of movie fans"), and punctuation/capitalisation errors (e.g., lower-case starting words in paragraphs, missing capitalisation on proper nouns). While these errors rarely completely impede communication, their frequency prevents the attainment of a Band 6.5.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.