Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-10-03

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)

In recent time, it is often seen that more and more people are planning their tours to the difficult places, succ as the Sahara desert or the Antarctic places. Despite of having the hostile weather/condition and chances of being caught by some disease and illness, they look for the benefits they may have by visiting such places, such as to try advantures activities and cheap in price.

The first and foremost advantage to travel to such places with difficult conditions would be to try a different adventures activites. To elaborate, there are so many people who believe we get lived once, and when they do they want to try it at fullest. Thus, when they plan to travel or to visit places, they often choose places with difficult weather conditions where they can try different adventures activities which make them feel alived and tested, such as sky diving, ice sketing, zip rolling and more. The second benefit could be cheap travel. To explain, people often plan their visit in accordance with their budget. People often have limited money to plan a trip, and these are the places which get fit in their budget because people generally do not prefer to visit such places with extream weather conditions. Therefore, from flight tickets to accomodation get fit in their baudget very easily.

However, traveling to these places have disadvantages too. The first could be chances of being caught by illness. People often tend to forget that if they travel to such places with harsh weather conditon, there is a possibility they may get caught by illness, cough or cold. Therfore, they may not be able to enjoy their trip while they are on it. The second disadvantage could be, while they are on the trip, they would always have to makesure to check the waether, and weather on these places is not stable. Thus, if the weather is not stable, it gets much difficult to go out and enjoy the beauty of the places.

To conclude, yes, there are some disadvantages of visiting such places, and there is nothing to take away. However, by looking at the advantages and the satisfaction and thrill it gives, people should make a trip to these places.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the benefits and disadvantages of visiting difficult tourist destinations. The position is clear throughout the essay. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others, which is characteristic of this level. For instance, the discussion around adventure activities and illnesses is relevant, but the claim that extreme weather destinations are cheaper is less convincing and lacks strong support. The ideas are generally relevant, but further extension and more precise examples would be needed to reach a higher level.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, dividing the introduction, advantages, disadvantages, and conclusion into distinct sections. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'The first and foremost advantage', 'To elaborate', and 'However', but their use is sometimes mechanical or repetitive, such as the frequent reliance on 'To explain' and 'To elaborate'. Referencing is generally clear, though occasional transitional awkwardness prevents the progression from feeling entirely smooth and natural throughout the response.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to convey their ideas about tourism and extreme environments. There are attempts to use less common vocabulary and phrases, such as 'hostile weather', 'satisfaction and thrill', and 'unstable'. However, there are noticeable spelling errors ('succ', 'advantures', 'activites', 'alived', 'sketing', 'extream', 'accomodation', 'baudget', 'conditon', 'Therfore', 'makesure', 'waether') and awkward word choices ('caught by some disease', 'zip rolling'). These inaccuracies show a limited yet minimally adequate range for the task.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The essay displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some ability to construct subordinate clauses, such as in 'People often tend to forget that if they travel to such places with harsh weather conditon, there is a possibility they may get caught by illness'. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation, including prepositional and article errors ('in recent time', 'travel to such places', 'on these places'), subject-verb agreement issues ('flight tickets to accomodation get fit'), and redundant phrasing ('Despite of'). These grammatical slips occur regularly throughout the text, though they rarely impede overall communication.

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