Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-26

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)

Transportation aids the country's growth. Transportation facilitates the communication between the cities and helps in elevating the economical growth .In my opinion , new fast and easy transportation facilities must be constructed .

In today's rapidly changing world , transportation played an integral part . Money must be invested in building new , speedy and less time consuming rails . Due to industrialisation and globalisation , individual are very busy in hectic schedules and to meet their requirements and aims in their lives ,so they work hard and have time -constraint jobs . For instance : person working in 9 to 5 jobs are always bound to reach on time . So if he or she reach on time they can work more effectively and efficiently . This needs super fast rsils and communication system.

New railway lines is always associated with nation' progress. Through new transportion amenities new opportunities can be linked and opened . For example : If there is need of goods and products ,suppied interstates and intercities , which leads to market rise and further increase the gross domestic product -GDP. This will affect the economical growth and development . Transportation directly is interlinked with urbanisation . As country side people explore new dimensions of the urban areas and transportation aids them to get easily from one place to other and earn their bread and butter .

But country must have enough funds to construct new railway lines .In my view , people must travel in locl public transport and government must understand the requiements of the general population and renovate new rails .

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both views on public transport spending—constructing new fast railway lines versus improving existing systems—and provides a clear personal opinion in the introduction and conclusion. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive. For instance, the discussion on economic growth mentions gross domestic product and market rise, but the arguments remain rather general and lack specific, well-extended examples. Furthermore, the final paragraph introduces a slight contradiction by stating that people must travel in local transport while also suggesting governments should renovate new rails, which slightly blurs the stance. Overall, the task is addressed adequately, earning a band score of 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt to structure the response into introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used, though paragraph breaks are occasionally erratic, such as starting a sentence with a space before the punctuation. Cohesive devices are used, but sometimes mechanically or inappropriately, such as using 'For instance : person working...' with awkward punctuation and grammatical referencing. Progression is generally logical, moving from individual benefits to broader economic impacts, but transitions between ideas can be abrupt. Therefore, this section aligns with the band 6.0 descriptors.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'industrialisation', 'globalisation', and 'gross domestic product'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, including 'economical growth' instead of economic growth, 'individual' instead of individuals, 'rsils' instead of rails, 'transportion' instead of transportation, 'suppied' instead of supplied, and 'locl' instead of local. These lexical inaccuracies and typos show a lack of control over word formation and spelling, capping the lexical score at a band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as conditional structures and relative clauses. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are frequent errors in subject-verb agreement and article usage, such as 'New railway lines is always associated', 'individual are very busy', and 'If there is need of goods'. Punctuation errors are also prominent, including spaces before commas and colons, and incomplete sentence fragments like 'So if he or she reach on time they can work more effectively'. Because these errors occasionally cause minor difficulty for the reader and impede smooth reading, a band score of 5.5 is appropriate.

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