Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-09-18
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)
In this contemporary society, advertisments has become widespread. Many companies spend alot of money on advertisments of their products. Some people believe advertisments play an essential role for convincing consumers to buy their products. Whereas others argue advertisments has become so common that people start ignoring them. In my perspective, both views has some reasons and consequences.
On the one hand, advertisments are immensely successful to convincing consumers to purchase their products by various kinds of ads. Companies use persuadive words, celebarities, benefits, banners and emotional messages such as create ugerncy to attract users by giving short time discounts. A point in case is Apple company promotes their products by highlighting new innovations and encourage consumers to exchange their existing phones and other appliances.
On the other hand, nowadays advertisments has become so common that people are not paying attention to them. People has become so sensible, they know about the advertisments tricks and how company used ads for attracting to influence them.For instance, we skip youtube ads after 5 second without thinking that what was it about. Currently more people rely on recommandations of their friends and online reviews rather than trust on advertisments.
It is my firm belief that advertising is extremely influence on consumers mind. If people do not immediatly purchase particular products, but they mostly buy those products of brands that they have been seen through advertisments whenever they go to supermarket. Although its increasing presence has also caused people to not pay attention. Nevertheless, I believe that targeted and attractive ads are successfully persuade users to purchasing.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0
The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both views on advertising and providing a clear personal opinion. The introduction outlines the two perspectives, and the conclusion clearly reiterates the writer's stance that targeted ads successfully persuade users. Ideas are supported with relevant explanations and examples, such as mentioning Apple and YouTube ads. However, some arguments lack full extension and tend to over-generalise slightly, particularly in the third paragraph regarding consumer awareness. There are also minor vocabulary inaccuracies such as 'advertisments has'. Overall, the response meets the criteria for Band 6.0, as all parts of the prompt are addressed with relevant, though sometimes under-developed, ideas.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph structure, including an introduction, two body paragraphs discussing each view, and a concluding paragraph. Cohesive devices such as 'On the one hand', 'On the other hand', and 'For instance' are used to guide the reader through the arguments. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or mechanical. For example, 'A point in case is Apple company promotes' lacks smooth integration, and pronouns like 'that what was it about' are slightly awkward. Paragraphing is used sufficiently, but logical progression between sentences occasionally falters due to grammatical slips. This performance aligns with Band 6.0 descriptors.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The writer attempts a range of vocabulary suitable for the topic, incorporating words and phrases such as 'contemporary society', 'widespread', 'persuasive', 'urgency', and 'recommendations'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, such as the repeated misspelling of 'advertisments' instead of 'advertisements', 'alot' instead of 'a lot', and awkward collocations like 'trust on advertisments' and 'extremely influence'. Less common lexical items are attempted but lack precision and control. Because the errors do not impede overall communication and the vocabulary is adequate for the task, a score of 5.5 is appropriate.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The response exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, attempting various clauses and conditional-style constructions. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are numerous subject-verb agreement errors, such as 'advertisments has become', 'both views has', and 'People has become'. Other errors include 'to convincing' instead of 'to convince', and 'how company used ads for attracting to influence them'. Punctuation and article usage also need attention. While the meaning is generally clear despite these frequent errors, the high frequency of basic grammatical mistakes prevents the score from reaching Band 6.0. Therefore, a band score of 5.0 is awarded.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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