Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-08-10

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)

After corona pandemic, there has been a significant change in the tourism over the world. People are more likely to explore different continents. Such as European are visiting America or north America. Canadians going to Europe. As such there are several merits and demerits of tourism.

The advantages of visiting places like Sahara dessert or Antarctic is that people living in Europe or America wanted to explore peoples life at such places. As these places got more tourists, the locals would get benefited. As the management would build more facilities that both tourists and the locals can have advantage of like more motels which would help locals to have jobs. Clean roads, better housing and more AirBNBs. It directly affects in the better infrastructure for the area.

On the other side, tourists might found it difficult as the temperature or sudden the environment change they face would affect their health. Some who have lungs problem might find it difficult breathing in a dry or more cold weather than they had in there our country.

Also, in the areas like Sahara dessert there is water shortage. So, more tourists means more water usage. If the management provides more water facilities to the tourists. The locals might face several problems related to water in their day-to- day life.

To sum up, I would say that tourism itself has merits and demerits. It depends upon the government or authorities of the area or country to manage accordingly. So that, the locals or the tourists don’t overuse the resources and face problems later.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both the benefits and disadvantages of tourism in extreme environments. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the benefit of 'better infrastructure' is mentioned, but the explanation remains superficial. The introduction is slightly off-topic, focusing on general post-pandemic travel trends rather than the specific prompt regarding extreme environments. The conclusion is brief and lacks a clear summary of the main points. To improve, you should provide more specific examples or deeper analysis for each point, ensuring that every sentence directly relates to the prompt's focus on difficult conditions like the Sahara or Antarctica.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the argument. However, the use of cohesive devices is somewhat mechanical and occasionally inaccurate. For example, the phrase 'As such' at the end of the first paragraph is used incorrectly to introduce a new topic. Additionally, some transitions between sentences are abrupt, such as the jump from 'Clean roads' to 'It directly affects in the better infrastructure'. While the paragraphing is clear, the flow between ideas could be improved by using a wider variety of linking words and ensuring that referencing is more precise throughout the text.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks the precision and range required for a higher band. There are several instances of awkward phrasing and word choice errors, such as 'after corona pandemic' (missing article), 'peoples life' (incorrect possessive), and 'there our country' (incorrect pronoun). The range of vocabulary is somewhat repetitive, relying on basic terms like 'merits and demerits' and 'difficult'. To achieve a higher score, you should aim to incorporate more topic-specific collocations and ensure that your word choices are grammatically accurate and contextually appropriate.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede clarity. Common issues include subject-verb agreement ('tourists might found it'), article usage ('the Sahara dessert'), and sentence fragments ('Such as European are visiting America'). While the meaning is generally understandable, the frequency of these errors prevents the writing from reaching a higher band. To improve, focus on mastering basic sentence construction, specifically ensuring that verbs are correctly conjugated and that articles are used appropriately before nouns.

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