Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-01
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, visitors like to visit the place which have different weather or difficult condition, such as the Sahara desert or the Antarctic. There are some merits and demerits of this trend which will be described in upcoming paragraphs.
First of all, people who love to explore the different place and love the advanture would like to visit this spots. It has benefits like get a knowledge about the place. To explain this, when individuals visit this places they get information about the weather as well as their local community way of life. It will enhance their knowledge which helps them in the future. Additionally, It is the source of recreation of their self. To illustrate this, exploring spots which is not located in nearby area will gives some challenging experience. Thus, they love to visit this places like Sahara desert or the Antarctic.
On the other hand, it also create health related issues. To explicate this, this places has different and unpredictable weather condition, due to this people might be feel uncomfortable or get sick. Furthermore, there is a chance to get some negative experience because sometime local people do not like visitors. According to local community, visitors spread negative things among them.
To sum up, exploring Sahara desert or the Antarctic will enhance knowledge of the world and chance to know about way of the life of local community. Whereas, it create some health problems because of unpredictable weather conditions.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
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. For instance, the benefit of 'enhancing knowledge' is mentioned twice without significant elaboration. The response is also under the 250-word minimum, which impacts the depth of the argument. To improve, you should provide more specific, concrete examples beyond just naming the Sahara or Antarctic, and ensure that each point is fully explored to meet the word count requirement and demonstrate a more thorough engagement with the prompt.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay is organized into clear paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. You use basic cohesive devices such as 'First of all', 'Additionally', and 'On the other hand' to signal transitions. However, the flow between sentences is sometimes mechanical, and the referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the phrase 'exploring spots which is not located in nearby area'. To reach a higher band, focus on using a wider variety of linking words and ensuring that the progression of ideas within paragraphs is smoother and more logical.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks the range and precision required for higher bands. You rely on simple, repetitive phrasing like 'visit the place' and 'get a knowledge'. There are also some awkward collocations, such as 'recreation of their self' and 'explicate this'. To improve, try to incorporate more sophisticated vocabulary related to travel and environmental challenges, and pay closer attention to word forms and natural collocations to ensure your writing sounds more professional and precise.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
There is a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but the accuracy is inconsistent. You frequently struggle with subject-verb agreement and pluralization, such as 'this places has' instead of 'these places have' and 'the place which have' instead of 'the place which has'. Additionally, there are errors with articles and prepositions throughout the text. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to lower the score. Focusing on basic grammatical accuracy and proofreading for subject-verb agreement will significantly improve your writing.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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