Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-22
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
In a number of countries, some people think it is necessary to spend large sums of money on constructing new railway lines for very fast trains between cities. Others believe the money should be spent on improving existing public transport.
Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Student answer (Band 5.5)
The allocation of national budgets for transport infrastructure in is a subject of ongoing debate.While some people argue that governments should invest heavily in high-spped rail networks between major cities,other beleive that priority should be given to upgrading existing local public transit.This essay will examine both perspectives before explaning why focusing on local public transport yeilds greater social benefits.
On the one hand,propnents of high-speed rail links argue that mega projects are vital for long-term economic expansion and environmental sustainability.Fast trains drastically reduce the travel times between distant urban hubs,facilitating seamless business operations,commerce and tourism.For instance countries like japan and china have successfully utilized bullet trains to decentralize economic activity from overpopulated capitals to secondary cities.
On the other hand,a compelling case can be made for modernizing existing public transit.The vast majority of citizens rely on local buses,subwaysand other commter trains rather than intercity bullet train.Upgrading these systems directly improves the daily lives of ordinary workers by reducing traffic congestion,decreasing commuting times,and lower urban pollution levels.
In my opinion,while high-speed railways offer futuristic economic advantages,enchancing existing local infrastructure is a far more pressing and equitable use of public funds.A robust,well-mainted municipal transport network forms the backbone of the country's daily economy.Therefore government should first garuntee official local transit before embarking on multi-billion-dollar intercity projects
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses both parts of the task by discussing the views on constructing high-speed rail lines versus improving existing public transport, and clearly states an owner's position favouring local public transport. The ideas presented, such as economic decentralization and reducing urban pollution, are relevant and supported with examples like Japan and China. However, a significant limitation is that the response contains only 214 words, failing to meet the minimum requirement of 250 words. This under-length issue prevents the full development of ideas expected for higher bands, resulting in a score of 6.0.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay displays a clear overall organization with a logical progression of ideas. It is appropriately divided into an introduction, two body paragraphs discussing opposing views, and a conclusion containing the writer's opinion. Cohesive devices are used to signal relationships between ideas, such as "On the one hand" and "On the other hand". However, paragraphing and referencing are slightly hindered by numerous missing spaces after punctuation marks (e.g., "debate.While", "cities,other", "subwaysand"), which detracts from the flow and visual coherence of the text. Overall, the structural progression remains coherent and easy to follow, supporting a solid score of 6.5.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range suitable for the task, successfully incorporating less common lexical items such as "infrastructure", "decentralize", "sustainable", and "equitable". There are, however, several lexical and spelling inaccuracies throughout the text, including "high-spped" (high-speed), "beleive" (believe), "propnents" (proponents), "yeilds" (yields), "commter" (commuter), "enchancing" (enhancing), "mainted" (maintained), and "garuntee" (guarantee). While these errors do not severely impede communication, their frequency prevents the vocabulary score from reaching higher bands. Therefore, a band score of 6.0 is appropriate.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as introductory dependent clauses and participial phrases (e.g., "While some people argue that..."). There are a number of grammatical errors and punctuation flaws, notably missing spaces after commas and periods throughout the essay, missing articles (e.g., "Therefore government should first..."), and typographical errors. Complex structures are attempted with varying degrees of success, and punctuation control is weak in places. Despite these errors, the meaning is generally clear and communication is rarely impeded, placing the performance comfortably at band 6.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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