Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-12

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 6.0)

A growing number of tourist are visiting places where weather conditions are severe and challenging to live like the Sahara desert or the Antarctic. Although, travelling to remote and challenging destinations provide them breath-taking view of nature and educational benefits. However, it can be responsible for the health issues and could be expensive over other types of trips.

On the advantageous side, visitors can explore beautiful view of nature, which would be hard to One major advantage of visiting such destinations is that tourists can experience natural environments that are very different from their everyday surroundings. For example, travelling across the Sahara allows visitors to experience vast deserts, traditional nomadic cultures and spectacular landscapes. Similarly, a trip to Antarctica can give tourists the opportunity to observe glaciers, penguins and other wildlife in their natural habitat. Such experiences can broaden people's understanding of the natural world and encourage them to appreciate the importance of protecting fragile ecosystems. In addition, travelling to challenging environments can help people develop independence, confidence and problem-solving skills because they have to cope with unfamiliar and sometimes uncomfortable conditions.

One major advantage of visiting such destinations is that tourists can experience natural environments that are very different from their everyday surroundings. For example, travelling across the Sahara allows visitors to experience vast deserts, traditional nomadic cultures and spectacular landscapes. Similarly, a trip to Antarctica can give tourists the opportunity to observe glaciers, penguins and other wildlife in their natural habitat. Such experiences can broaden people's understanding of the natural world and encourage them to appreciate the importance of protecting fragile ecosystems. In addition, travelling to challenging environments can help people develop independence, confidence and problem-solving skills because they have to cope with unfamiliar and sometimes uncomfortable conditions.

In conclusion, visiting difficult and remote destinations can offer tourists memorable experiences, greater knowledge of nature and opportunities for personal development. Nevertheless, these trips involve significant safety risks and may harm vulnerable environments. Therefore, such tourism should be carefully managed, with strict safety and environmental regulations in place.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt well by discussing both the benefits and disadvantages of visiting extreme environments like the Sahara or Antarctica. The introduction presents a clear position, although the initial sentence contains a slight fragment and phrasing issue ('A growing number of tourist'). The body paragraphs present well-supported ideas regarding natural beauty, education, personal development, safety risks, and environmental impact. The ideas are extended and supported with relevant examples such as observing glaciers and traditional nomadic cultures. However, there is a notable error in the first paragraph where a sentence abruptly stops ('hard to') and an entire body paragraph is duplicated word-for-word in the middle of the essay. Despite these structural flaws, the task is properly addressed and the main arguments are adequately developed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay has a clear overall structure, featuring a distinct introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is utilised, although the presence of a duplicate body paragraph disrupts the logical progression and flow of the text. Cohesive devices are used to link ideas, such as 'For example', 'Similarly', 'In addition', and 'In conclusion'. However, referencing and transitions are somewhat affected by the repetition and minor mechanical errors at the start. The progression of ideas is generally clear, but the duplicated paragraph causes cohesion to falter in the middle of the response, preventing a higher score.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'fragile ecosystems', 'traditional nomadic cultures', and 'personal development'. There are some word choice and grammatical errors in vocabulary, such as 'tourist' instead of 'tourists' and 'health issues' versus general risks, but these do not impede communication. The use of phrases like 'breath-taking view' and 'advantageous side' shows an attempt to vary language, though some collocations are slightly unnatural. Overall, the lexical range is sufficient to convey the intended meaning with acceptable precision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The response exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence forms. The writer attempts complex structures using subordinate clauses ('Although, travelling to remote...', 'because they have to cope...'). However, there are several grammatical errors and awkward phrasings, such as 'conditions are severe and challenging to live like' (missing preposition) and 'could be expensive over other types of trips' (unnatural collocation). Punctuation is generally fine, but sentence boundaries are occasionally blurred by introductory fragments or broken clauses. The errors do not impede communication, placing the text comfortably within the Band 6 descriptor.

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