Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-08

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 some countries, numerous individuals are becoming more interested in finding out about the history of the house or the building they're living in. One of the reasons for this can be the attachment to their houses. People can research this in many different ways, ranging from reading the history of ownership in the contract or going to the government's city archieve.

To begin with, people develop an emotional type of relationship to the place they find and consider as home, it's something instinctive since the beginning of the creation, therefore an interest may develop in finding out the history of this house or this place, before considering it home or an area of settlement, other reasons may include seeing if there's any going legal conflicts.

Furthermore, a place which is considered home is always present with its memories in the hearts of the people who live in it, the visual memory gets activated when a person visits a place he used to enjoy. Analysts conducted a research and found out that 80% of individuals, especially kids still remember their first house and can describe their memories there easily as if it was yesterday. From my own experience, asking my friends about this and they said that they still remember how they used to play with family and friends in their old houses.

In addition, for individuals who want to be able to research something like this, some contracts in many countries include the history of ownership, when this house or building was built or you can easily go to your city's archieve, you can find every piece of the city there.

In conclusion, the history of a house can be our own history and memories, we can either trace the contract or go for the city's archieves to find out about it.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both questions: you suggest emotional attachment and possible legal conflicts as reasons, and mention ownership contracts and city archives as research methods. However, the reasons are not consistently focused on discovering a building’s history. Much of the discussion concerns remembering childhood homes, which is related to attachment but does not clearly explain why people investigate a home’s past. The claim about analysts finding that 80% of people remember their first house is also not connected to the task’s central question or supported with detail. To strengthen the response, explain specific motivations—such as checking a property’s age, previous uses, or heritage status—and show how each research method could uncover that information.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion, and signposting such as “To begin with,” “Furthermore,” and “In addition” helps identify the stages of the discussion. However, progression is uneven: the paragraph about visual memories and childhood homes moves away from the question of researching a building’s history, while the research methods are mainly grouped together near the end. Some sentences also join several ideas without clear boundaries, particularly the opening body paragraph, making the relationships between points harder to follow. Organise the essay around the two task questions, with a focused paragraph on reasons and another on research methods, and use clearer links between each claim and its explanation.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some relevant vocabulary, including “emotional relationship,” “history of ownership,” “legal conflicts,” and “city’s archives,” which allows you to discuss both motivations and research. However, the range is somewhat repetitive, with frequent use of “house,” “place,” and “history,” and several expressions are imprecise or unnatural, such as “an emotional type of relationship” and “the visual memory gets activated.” Spelling errors in “archieve” and “archieves” also affect accuracy. Aim for more precise terms related to the topic, such as property records, previous occupants, historical maps, or local heritage databases, and check spelling and collocations carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including clauses introduced by “since” and “when,” and the main ideas are generally understandable. However, complex sentences are often not controlled well. For example, “People develop an emotional type of relationship …, it’s something instinctive” joins two independent clauses with only a comma; the long sentence beginning “To begin with” has a similar run-on structure. There are also errors in sentence construction, as in “From my own experience, asking my friends … and they said,” and inconsistent pronoun use in “a person he used to enjoy.” Use full stops or conjunctions to separate complete ideas, and revise sentence boundaries and pronouns to make the grammar clearer.

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