Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-30

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In some countries, more and more people are becoming interested in finding out about the history of the house or building they live in.

What are the reasons for this?

How can people research this?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

In various nations, many individuals are taking more interested in searching about the history of the domestic home or building in which they live their life. In my perspective, people always curious about their buildings or homes just to find out the geographic importance and the safety and they get lot of help from their ancestors or through internet.

On the one hand, the reasons behind this research is to look out the hidden features of their living place. Because due to climate change there are lot of risks such as flood and earthquake. For example, recently the flood in Nepal take many important human life's and destroy the whole infrastructure of a country. As a result, people want to find out the strata beneath their homes and lakes or rivers surrounding them.

On the other hand, regarding research there are many ways to search out the history. Considerably, the internet and local administration plays a crucial role in keeping the records of place or building. For instance, a person easily locate the old pictures of the private dwelling and the flow of water on google maps and verifies this information by comparing drawings and records. Therefore, it is very easy for residents in nowadays to get access in finding about the history of building.

In conclusion, people taking more interest in finding out the history of their home or building to get familiar with the upcoming natural hazards or geographic importance which they can easily get from the internet like google map or by visiting administration places and ancestors.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.5
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: reasons for researching building history and methods for doing so. However, the development is somewhat limited. The reasons provided—specifically the focus on natural hazards like floods and earthquakes—are a bit narrow and do not fully explore the cultural or historical curiosity often associated with this topic. While the response is relevant, the ideas are not fully extended, and the explanation of how to research is somewhat superficial. The position is clear, but the overall depth of the argument is more characteristic of a Band 5.5 or 6.0 response.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organised into logical paragraphs, each with a clear focus. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'On the one hand', 'On the other hand', and 'For instance', which help guide the reader. However, some transitions are mechanical or slightly awkward, such as 'Considerably, the internet...'. Additionally, the referencing is sometimes unclear, and the flow between sentences within paragraphs could be smoother. The paragraphing is appropriate, but the overall progression of ideas feels a bit repetitive in the conclusion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks precision and variety. There are several instances of awkward word choices or non-standard collocations, such as 'taking more interested', 'domestic home', and 'visiting administration places'. The student attempts to use some topic-specific vocabulary like 'infrastructure' and 'strata', but the overall range is limited. The errors in word choice do not typically impede communication, but they do prevent the response from reaching a higher band level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors throughout. Examples include 'people always curious' (missing verb), 'take many important human life's' (incorrect pluralization and apostrophe usage), and 'residents in nowadays' (incorrect prepositional phrase). While the meaning is generally clear, these errors are persistent. The control of punctuation and subject-verb agreement needs significant improvement to reach a higher band score.

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

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