Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-05
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)
Some people think that advertisement is an effective way for persuading people to buy the product. While others believe that it is not an attractive way for increasing sales. In my opinion, advertising the product makes people buy the item.
Advertisement helps businesses to make people aware of the advantages of their products. They hire influencers as the brand ambassadors. This makes a general item more appealing. These corporations use a psychological trap. These influencers advertised that product by highlighting those features of the product that they consider useful for their followers. For instance, should a protein powder-company hire a physically fit influencer, a significant proportion of the individuals will buy that powder by considering it being the reason for the influencer's physique.
On the other hand, nowadays, advertising is prevalent. Every company is using this trick. As a result, this trick has lost its effectiveness. Now people ignore most of the ads. They consider it another way of improving the sales. For example, instagram users are get used to see hundreds of ads on daily basis, instead of buying those items, they just scroll them up. Hence, today paying to the influencers for reaching targeted sales is just a wastage of money. Only the brand ambassadors are getting rich day by day.
In conclusion, advertisement is prevalent, but it is still an effective way of selling. However, most of the businesses have changed their way of advertisement. Instead of paying to a number of small social media creator, they hire one popular creator. Because, most of the people that adore him, they would buy it in order to be like that influencer. It is a way of showing love.
In this way, businesses are making millions of dollars just by hiring influencers.
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—that advertising is extremely persuasive and that it is too common to be noticed—and presents a clear position. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others, which is characteristic of this level. For instance, the discussion on how companies use psychological traps through influencers is relevant, but the explanation regarding how audiences ignore ads through excessive scrolling is somewhat repetitive and under-developed. To reach a higher level, the writer should extend and support all main ideas with more precise explanations and avoid falling into generalizations about modern consumer behavior.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing used to separate the introduction, body paragraphs addressing each view, and the conclusion. However, cohesion is at times mechanical or faulty. Transitional phrases like 'On the other hand' and 'In conclusion' are present, but referencing and linking within paragraphs lack smooth progression. For example, sentences such as 'Because, most of the people that adore him, they would buy it' display awkward referencing and clunky transition. Improving the logical flow between sentences and ensuring cohesive devices are used more naturally would elevate the organizational quality of the response.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, successfully conveying the writer's meaning throughout the essay. The writer attempts less common lexical items such as 'brand ambassadors', 'psychological trap', and 'prevalent'. However, there are notable inaccuracies in word choice, collocation, and form, such as 'instagram users are get used to see' instead of 'are getting used to seeing', and 'a protein powder-company' where word form and hyphenation are slightly flawed. These errors do not seriously impede communication, but they reflect a limited precision. To improve, the student needs to expand their range of less common vocabulary and ensure accurate word combinations and spelling.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures. There are, however, some errors in grammar and punctuation that occur throughout the text. Examples include article omission ('advertisement is an effective way'), subject-verb agreement issues ('a protein powder-company hire'), and incorrect verb complements ('get used to see'). Fortunately, these grammar errors rarely impede communication and the meaning remains clear. A greater variety of error-free complex structures and tighter control over articles and verb patterns are needed to achieve stronger grammatical accuracy.
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.