Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-08-17
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
Some people say that advertising is extremely successful at persuading us to buy things. Other people think that advertising is so common that we no longer pay attention to it. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.
Student answer (Band 5.5)
There is an ongoing debate about whether modern-day advertisings are extremely sucessful and effective at persuading and convincing consumer to purchase their products or services. While other argue that adverisment are so omnipresent and common that most people nowadays are likely to immunue nor paying attention to it. While advertisment is an important tool for company to promote their service and producst, however I believe that most peoples nowaday are mostly immunue or unaffected by it.
On on one hand, every small and big businesses from street food stalls in the park or beach to fast-food chains are able to keep up with trends which is using the social media to promote their business to the locals. Advertising is very effective because it taps into human psychology and build subconscious familiarity, and uses data to target the right people with right messages. It does not push for instant sales but it influence people future purchase and intention. For example, apple company often bombard every social media platfornm with their advertisments before their product launch to influence and promote their product which is one of the best on the current market with their high price tag.
On the other hand, too much advertising could result in ad fatigue and skeptism which could potentially backfire for the business. As too much targeted advertisment was intrusive and annoying, people tend to build psychological defense mechanisms to ignore or already immunue to the bombardment of ads.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses both views and provides a clear personal opinion. However, the essay is under the 250-word minimum, which limits the depth of the arguments. While the ideas are relevant, the development is somewhat superficial. For instance, the explanation of how advertising targets consumers is brief, and the conclusion is missing entirely. The failure to meet the minimum word count requirement significantly impacts the ability to fully develop the response, resulting in a lower score for task achievement as the ideas are not extended sufficiently to meet the requirements of a full essay.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay is organised into paragraphs, and there is a basic logical progression. However, the use of cohesive devices is sometimes mechanical or inaccurate. For example, the opening sentence uses 'While' incorrectly as a conjunction for a main clause, and the transition 'On on one hand' contains a typo. The lack of a concluding paragraph makes the overall structure feel incomplete. While the reader can follow the main points, the flow is hindered by these structural and linking issues, preventing a higher band score.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks precision and contains several errors. There are repeated spelling mistakes such as 'advertisings', 'sucessful', 'adverisment', 'immunue', and 'skeptism'. While the student attempts to use topic-specific vocabulary like 'subconscious familiarity' and 'psychological defense mechanisms', the frequent spelling errors and incorrect word forms (e.g., 'immunue' instead of 'immune') impede the overall quality of the writing. A wider range of vocabulary and more accurate spelling are needed to reach a higher band.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The response uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors. Issues include subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'advertisings are'), incorrect sentence fragments (e.g., 'While other argue that...'), and punctuation errors. The sentence 'While advertisment is an important tool... however I believe...' is grammatically incorrect due to the double conjunction. These errors occur frequently throughout the text. While the meaning is generally clear, the high frequency of basic grammatical slips limits the score.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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