Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-08-05

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Today more and more tourists are visiting places where conditions are difficult, such as the Sahara desert or the Antarctic.

What are the benefits and disadvantages for tourists who visit such places?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

 

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Nowadays increasing numbers of travellers are going on such locations such as the Sahara dessert or Arctic continent, where conditions are extreme harsh. There are plenty of pros and cons for visiting those places.

One of the main advantage of visiting the spots where the living conditions are very worse is, improve the life saving skills. If individuals prepare their life for the worst, then after stucking in the less challenging moments can feel the easy. For example, individuals who are living in Canada in the harsh winter, can live in the UK without any hustle. Because the capability of bearing the cold is already developed in them. So, survive in the most difficult conditions can boost the confidence to tackle any detrimental situations, and make you life easier to live.

A risk of loosing life is the key disadvantage of travelling the challanging places. For example, to visit the hottest place in the earth such as the Sahara dessert without keeping the enough water supplies, can be life thratening, as 30 percent of the individuals who died in sahara dessert, was died because of they are thirsty of water. So, if individuals are going in any challanging places, needs to prepare them self first, by keeping all the neccessary supplies with them t survive the conditions.

In conclusion, for touring the life thretening places is good because it can help to improve the life saving skills, but at the same time by not equipping the enough supplies can kill your self as well.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both the benefits and disadvantages of visiting extreme environments. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive. The argument regarding 'life-saving skills' is a bit tenuous, as tourism in extreme locations is rarely about survival training. The example provided about living in Canada versus the UK is not entirely relevant to the prompt about extreme tourism. While the response covers all parts of the task, the supporting arguments lack depth and logical connection to the core topic, resulting in a somewhat superficial treatment of the subject matter.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organised into clear paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. However, the use of cohesive devices is often mechanical or inaccurate. For instance, the transition 'Because the capability of bearing the cold is already developed in them' is grammatically awkward and disrupts the flow. Referencing is sometimes unclear, such as the use of 'the spots' or 'those places' without sufficient preceding context. While there is an overall progression, the logical links between sentences are frequently strained, and the essay relies on simple, repetitive connectors like 'For example' and 'So'.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary range is limited and contains several errors in word choice and spelling. Examples include 'dessert' instead of 'desert', 'loosing' instead of 'losing', 'thratening' instead of 'threatening', and 'hustle' used incorrectly to mean 'hassle'. These errors are frequent and occasionally impede the reader's understanding. While the student attempts to use topic-specific vocabulary like 'detrimental' and 'extreme harsh', the misuse of basic terms and persistent spelling mistakes prevent the response from reaching a higher band. The vocabulary is generally sufficient for basic communication but lacks the precision required for higher scores.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but the accuracy is inconsistent. There are frequent grammatical errors, such as 'One of the main advantage' (should be 'advantages'), 'stucking' (should be 'being stuck'), and 'needs to prepare them self' (should be 'need to prepare themselves'). Subject-verb agreement and preposition usage are also problematic throughout the text. While the meaning is generally conveyed, the high frequency of errors in basic sentence construction and punctuation limits the score. More attention to proofreading and fundamental grammar rules is necessary to improve clarity and accuracy.

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