Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-11-04

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 the tourism industry is growing due to invention of modern means of the communication and availibility of resources. People want to visit places such as the Sahara desert or the Antarctic that are not hostile due to severe conditions. This essay will delineate the advantages and disadvantages that one can face during visit of such places.

On the one hand, there are a lot of advantages of visiting such places. One can get a chance to explore new things. Wonderful species of birds and animals can be seen through the visit of such places. Beautiful landscapes and natural scenes are one of the main reasons due to which tourists prefer to visit these places. They can get a lot of information about the life style, culture and cuisine of the people who live there. They can highlight the problems that people canl face during their visit or stay at such places.

On the other hand, one of the main factors attributed to its disadvantages is that they have to face severe difficulties due to extreme weather conditions. Climbing a mountain in winters and with heavy snowfall is not an easy task. Likewise, travel in desert at extremely high temperature is very difficult. Such visitis are full of life threats from wild animals. Even mortalities happened due to insufficient first aid, food, and water. People must have basic first aid with them.

To conclude, One must be aware of the problems that he or she can face duirng such tours and their possible solution too. Hence, they can make their tour save, interesting and informative.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both sides of the question and give relevant benefits, including seeing wildlife and landscapes and learning about local ways of life, alongside risks from extreme weather, wild animals, and shortages of supplies. The response also has a clear concluding recommendation to prepare for possible problems. However, several points are asserted rather than explained: for example, “They can highlight the problems” is unclear, and the benefits are not illustrated with a specific example. The discussion of disadvantages is somewhat more developed, but the essay could explain more directly how these experiences benefit tourists and why the risks matter. The length requirement is met; the eight words copied from the task prompt were not counted. Develop and support each main idea more fully to address the task more completely.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall arrangement: an introduction, a paragraph on benefits, a paragraph on disadvantages, and a conclusion. The signposts “On the one hand,” “On the other hand,” and “To conclude” make the main stages easy to follow. Within the body paragraphs, however, ideas are often listed rather than linked through explanation, so the progression is not always smooth. For instance, the sentence about highlighting problems follows the discussion of local culture without making the connection clear. Some references are also vague, such as “they” and “such places,” which can leave the reader unsure what is being referred to. Use linking phrases to show cause and effect, and make references more precise while keeping the effective paragraph structure.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a relevant range of topic vocabulary, including “extreme weather conditions,” “heavy snowfall,” “wild animals,” and “first aid,” which helps communicate the main risks. There are also attempts at more formal phrasing, such as “attributed to its disadvantages,” although this expression is not natural in context. Several spelling and word-choice errors reduce precision, including “availibility,” “visitis,” and “mortalities happened.” Phrases such as “beautiful landscapes and natural scenes” are repetitive, while “life style” and “save” are not the most suitable forms in their contexts. This range is adequate for the topic, but more accurate collocations and less repetition would make the ideas clearer and more natural.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You use both simple sentences and some attempts at more complex structures, such as “People want to visit places … that are not hostile due to severe conditions” and “One must be aware of the problems that he or she can face.” Most ideas remain understandable, but errors in sentence construction and grammatical forms occur. For example, “during visit of such places” needs an article and a more suitable preposition, and “travel in desert” is missing an article. The sentence beginning “Even mortalities happened” is also awkwardly formed, making the intended meaning less clear. Capitalisation is inconsistent in “To conclude, One must…”. Practise accurate article use and sentence patterns, and check punctuation and capital letters when editing.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.