Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-11

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)

Some countries of world with tremendous geographic history have led to search about their own house. Suggesting they may uncover some treasure or ancient secret.

Many places in the world contain hidden treasures because of their history. For example: some places might have ancient civilizations buried under them or they might have valuable treasure in the form of Gold, Diamond, Oil etc buried underground due to its geographical history.

With rise of social media people see thousands of videos showing them finding valuable things in their home or their area. As a result people try to find valuable goods in their own home or surrounding.

Internet is open source and easily accessible nowadays, so it's not difficult for anyone to search whereabouts of their area and its history online.

I live in Pakistan. Our town was occupied by Britishers before partition. In our town, a man once found a gold plate in his house probably left there during migration. This massive discovery led everyone in town to search their own houses in attempt to find something valuable.

Although nothing special was found another man found some silver coins but it was not much worthy.

Their are also many stories of people finding ancient or costly stuff in their houses or backyards. This sparks massive hope in people of finding history of their building.

Finding something precious is mostly by luck. But searching about ones areas history is free and easily accessible. This result as a trend of people searching their house or building.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt: reasons for the interest and methods of research. However, the development is somewhat limited. The focus remains heavily on the 'treasure hunting' aspect rather than the broader historical or architectural interest implied by the prompt. While the example from Pakistan is relevant, the explanation of research methods is quite brief, mentioning only 'online' searches. To achieve a higher band, you should expand on how people research (e.g., local archives, public records, or talking to elderly residents) and provide more varied reasons beyond just the hope of finding monetary wealth.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into short paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the progression of ideas. However, the use of cohesive devices is somewhat mechanical and limited. Transitions between sentences are often abrupt, and some sentences feel disconnected from the previous ones. For instance, the transition between the general statement about the internet and the personal anecdote about Pakistan could be smoother. Improving the use of linking words (e.g., 'furthermore', 'consequently', 'in addition to this') would help create a more natural flow and better connect your arguments.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks the precision and variety required for a higher band. You rely on basic terms like 'valuable things', 'good', and 'stuff'. There are also some awkward collocations, such as 'search whereabouts of their area' and 'not much worthy'. To improve, try to incorporate more academic and topic-specific vocabulary related to history, architecture, and research methodologies. While your meaning is clear throughout, the range of vocabulary is limited, which prevents a higher score in this criterion.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

There is a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but the accuracy is inconsistent. You have frequent errors in articles (e.g., 'Some countries of world'), pluralization, and subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'Their are also many stories'). Punctuation is also problematic, particularly with sentence fragments and comma usage. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they occur frequently enough to be distracting. To improve, focus on mastering basic sentence construction and proofreading for common grammatical slips before attempting more complex structures.

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

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