Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-08-20

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 6.5)

In today's world many tourists are visiting some remote places where it seems challenging in terms of extreme conditions, such as Sahara desert or the Antarctic. While travelling to those places is fun and excellent achievement, it comes with physical challenges as well as risks involved and high financial costs.

To begin with, visiting to exotic places provides adventure and educational advantages. Firstly, we can get to know about its culture, unique experiences while travelling to nature and mountains as well as wildlife that cannot be found somewhere else, such as polar bear, and whales. Secondly, travelling and checking off our bucket list to those extreme places can help come out of our comfort zone which helps to build self confidence. For instance, mountaineers who prefer to climb high mountains often report to have self development after successfully climbing and navigating through various landscapes.

Furthermore, the drawbacks of visiting those places are significant. The primary disadvantage is risk to personal safety and health. Extreme climate conditions where temperature falls constantly below 0 degree particularly creates a condition where it becomes hard for visitors to breathe at a normal rate. Sometimes the condition worsens where severe medical emergencies can arise where rescue operations becomes difficult or sometimes delayed or impossible. Additionally, travelling to such extreme locations come with very high costs including to buy various safety gears, mandatory guide service and complex logistics as it becomes burden or impractical for some people.

In conclusion, while travelling to adventurous places is fun as it gives thrilling experience as well as self confidence can be gained but on the other side it comes with sever health hazards and steep costs. Visitors must take into account of such things before travelling to harsh tourists destination.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, identifying both benefits and disadvantages of extreme tourism. The ideas are relevant, such as the mention of self-development and cultural exposure as benefits, and safety risks and financial burdens as drawbacks. However, the development of these points is somewhat limited. For example, the explanation of 'self-development' is brief, and the discussion on costs could be more deeply explored with specific examples. To reach a higher band, ensure that each point is fully extended with more detailed reasoning or illustrative examples to provide a more comprehensive answer.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The essay is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'To begin with', 'Firstly', 'Secondly', and 'Furthermore' are used to guide the reader through the arguments. However, the use of these devices is occasionally mechanical, and some transitions between sentences feel slightly abrupt. Paragraphing is used appropriately, and there is a clear progression of ideas throughout the text. To improve, focus on using a wider variety of linking words and ensuring that the relationship between sentences is more fluid.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing the writer to convey their ideas clearly. There are some attempts at less common lexical items, such as 'exotic places', 'mandatory guide service', and 'severe medical emergencies'. However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'visiting to exotic places' (should be 'visiting exotic places') and 'report to have self development' (should be 'report experiencing personal growth'). The range is sufficient to discuss the topic, but more precise and varied vocabulary would elevate the response.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('rescue operations becomes difficult') and missing articles ('such as Sahara desert'). Punctuation is generally functional, but there are some awkward phrasings that slightly impede the flow. To improve, the writer should focus on proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy and attempt to incorporate more complex sentence structures with greater precision to demonstrate better control.

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