Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · 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 5.0)

Recently, the trend of exploring places like the Sahara desert or the Antarctic, with difficult living conditions is becoming increasingly popular among tourists. While there may be some benefits for the tourists, there are some disadvantages as well.

The clear advantage is the experience and knowledge gained by visiting places with extreme weathers. Tourist majorly learn about the different species of flora and fauna that survive in these difficult conditions with the help of physical traits that they have adapted through years of evolution. For instance, exploring the Antarctic teaches how polar bears survive the extreme colds.

However, choosing such extraordinary and difficult places as a tourist can prove to be disadvantage as well. Firstly, these places do not allow a prolonged stay due to the extreme weather. Secondly, they do not have any historical importance in relation to mankind. Tourists can choose better places with rich hist

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

The response addresses both sides of the question in a basic way: it identifies learning about wildlife as a benefit and limited stay as a disadvantage. However, the discussion is very brief and the second disadvantage—that the places lack historical importance to humans—is not clearly connected to why visiting them is a disadvantage. The example about polar bears is also inaccurate in context, since polar bears do not live in Antarctica, which weakens the support for the benefit. The response ends mid-sentence at “rich hist…”, leaving the answer incomplete. It also falls short of the required minimum length, so the ideas and examples are not sufficiently developed to answer the task fully.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, a paragraph on benefits, and a paragraph on disadvantages. The contrast marker “However” helps signal the shift between the two sides, and “Firstly” and “Secondly” introduce separate points. This gives the reader some guidance, but progression is limited because each point is stated briefly without explanation or a developed example. The final phrase, “rich hist…”, cuts off the second paragraph and prevents a complete conclusion or clear ending. To improve, organise each main idea into a fuller point-and-explanation sequence, use clear links between reasons and examples, and finish with a complete concluding sentence.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

There is some relevant topic vocabulary, including “extreme weather,” “species,” “flora and fauna,” and “evolution,” which helps communicate the subject. The response also attempts more specific expressions such as “prolonged stay.” However, several choices are inaccurate or unnatural: “extreme weathers” is not the usual form, “Tourist majorly learn” is awkward, and “extreme colds” does not express the intended meaning naturally. “Difficult living conditions” is repeated from the prompt rather than developed with a wider range of precise language. Choose natural collocations and vocabulary that accurately describes the environment and the visitor’s experience; this will make the ideas clearer and more convincing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response uses a mixture of simple and more complex sentence forms, including the opening clause “While there may be some benefits…” and the relative clause “species … that survive in these difficult conditions.” Most sentences remain understandable, but there are some grammatical errors. For example, “Tourist majorly learn” has a number and adverb-placement problem, while “can prove to be disadvantage” is missing an article. The sentence beginning “The trend … is becoming” is also awkwardly constructed, and the final sentence is incomplete. Work on accurate articles, singular and plural agreement, and complete sentence construction. Developing a few longer sentences carefully would demonstrate a wider range without sacrificing clarity.

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

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