Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-10-05

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)

Today more and more tourists arte visiting difficult places such as the Sahara desert or Antartica. This essay will discuss the main benefits and drawbacks of this statement in the following paragraphs.

This paragraph will dicuss some advantages of visiting the difficult places. To begin with, it is very helpful for tourists personal growth and confidance because during the visting time they live in difficult coditions so, it helps them to become more stronger and more confident. For instance, if a tourist complete his trip in Antarctica he may feel more proud because he managed cold weather, and limited facilities. Moreover, people learn about nature and science of this particular places because this place teach peple about their environment. Foe example, In Antractica tourists learn about their wildlife. So, it helps to gain more knowledge about the diffirent type of places.

On the other hand, this paragraph will discuss the drawbacks of visiting the harsh places. To begin with, sometimes it creates heaith risks, such as, cold, dehydration. harsh weather can be dengerous for tourists. Also, harsh places are more expensive so, every people cannot afford visiting. Also, this place have limited services. For example, In Antarctica , tourists faces many rules and they also face limited medical support. So, that is way tourists face many difficulties to visiting this kind of place.

In conclusion, visting harsh places can be exited and knowledgable for tourists. But however, sometimes they face health risks and limited facilities, such as medical and food.

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 places like the Sahara or Antarctica. However, the development of ideas is uneven. While the benefits regarding personal growth and environmental learning are introduced, they remain somewhat superficial and lack full extension. For instance, the point about gaining confidence through managing cold weather is stated rather than fully explored with deep reasoning. Similarly, the disadvantages such as health risks and expenses are identified, but the explanation remains basic. To reach a higher level, the writer needs to fully extend their arguments with more thorough explanations and fully realized examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt to structure the essay into an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used logically to separate advantages and disadvantages. Cohesive devices are employed, such as 'To begin with', 'Moreover', and 'On the other hand', which provides a clear progression of ideas. However, referencing and transitions are sometimes mechanical or repetitive, such as the formulaic topic sentences ('This paragraph will discuss...'). To move further into higher bands, the writer should employ more varied and flexible cohesive devices and ensure smoother transitions between sentences and paragraphs without relying on rigid templates.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to communicate basic ideas about travel and extreme environments. There are attempts to use less common vocabulary, such as 'dehydration', 'facilities', and 'environment', but these are accompanied by notable spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'arte', 'Antartica', 'confidance', 'coditions', 'stronger' (used redundantly with 'more'), 'peple', 'Foe', 'Antractica', 'diffirent', 'heaith', 'dengerous', 'every people', 'way', and 'exited'. These errors reflect a limited range and noticeable slips in spelling and word formation that occasionally draw the reader's attention. To improve, the writer must expand their lexical control and carefully check their spelling and word forms.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writing displays a mix of simple and some complex sentence forms, such as conditional structures and relative clauses ('if a tourist complete his trip... he may feel more proud'). However, there is a limited range of grammatical structures overall, and attempts at complex sentences frequently feature errors in agreement, articles, verb forms, and punctuation, such as 'if a tourist complete' (disagreement), 'this particular places', 'tourists faces', and comma splices like 'conditions so, it helps'. Frequent errors in grammar persist across the text and can occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader. To achieve a higher score, the writer must demonstrate greater control over complex sentence patterns and improve grammatical accuracy, particularly with subject-verb agreement and article usage.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

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