Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-11-03

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)

In various Countires around the world, few individuals believe that it is of utter most important to spend juge amount of resources in order to create modren railway network as well as modren trains to connect different cities. while on the other side people want that funds to be allocated to advancement of current public transport network.

For Instance, creating a new railway line between mulitple cities will help in managing traffic and reducing travel time which will ultimately affect the use of public transport. Fast and modren railway network is one of key factor in helping the economy to boost. As we can take a example of New York Railway network which based in underground and it is one of oldest and most effcient in the world, it can also be described as backbone of city's transportation.

On the other side upgrading current public transport is also one of key factor to imrpove urban mobility. Better and wide roads lead to smooth traffic flow evem in peak hours. Encouraging use of cycles and electric bike is very helpful and goverments should introduce bike friendly roads to help more people to avail this opportunity.

Amsterdam is a very common example of good transport system apart from their tram as well as train system. Most peolple living in the city uses bike to travel around.

According to my perspective, I strongly believe that both sectors should be improved in order to ease up the traffic and maintain smooth mobility withen the city. Goverments should priortize on existing public network while keeping the trains schemes to introduce in fututre.

In Conclusion, Countries must ensure the imrpovement of their present means of transportataion and then remaning resources should be utilized to improve the railway network.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You discuss both proposed investments and give a clear preference for improving existing transport first, as shown in “Goverments should priortize on existing public network.” The examples of New York’s railway and Amsterdam’s cycling culture are relevant, and you explain some benefits, such as reducing travel time and easing traffic. However, the discussion is only partly developed: the case for new high-speed rail is not clearly distinguished from general railway improvements, and the benefits and costs of upgrading existing services receive little explanation. Your position also shifts slightly between saying both sectors should be improved and saying remaining resources should go to rail. Explain how you would balance the two options and support each view with more specific reasoning.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for the two views, your opinion, and a conclusion. This makes the overall direction easy to follow. Linking phrases such as “For Instance,” “On the other side,” and “In Conclusion” help signal the stages of the argument, although some are mechanical or repeated. Within paragraphs, ideas sometimes move abruptly—for example, the first body paragraph shifts from travel time to economic growth and then to New York without fully connecting these points. The relationship between your view that both sectors need improvement and your conclusion that rail receives only remaining resources could also be made clearer. Use more precise transitions and develop each paragraph around one main claim.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant transport vocabulary, including “railway network,” “public transport,” “urban mobility,” “traffic flow,” and “bike friendly roads,” which helps communicate the topic. There are also attempts at more formal phrasing, such as “allocated to advancement.” However, spelling errors are frequent, including “Countires,” “modren,” “effcient,” and “goverments,” and some word combinations are unnatural or imprecise: “utter most important,” “huge amount of resources,” and “one of key factor.” These issues make the writing less fluent and occasionally require the reader to interpret your meaning. Build accuracy by checking spelling and learning common collocations, while choosing precise terms—for example, distinguish high-speed rail investment from general improvements to railway services.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentences, including a relative clause in “New York Railway network which based in underground” and a conditional-style recommendation about governments introducing bike-friendly roads. However, sentence structures are often faulty, and errors sometimes make relationships between ideas unclear. For example, “which based in underground” is missing a verb, while “Most peolple living in the city uses bike” has a subject–verb agreement problem. Articles and sentence boundaries also need attention: “As we can take a example” and the lowercase “while” after the opening sentence are examples. Practise building accurate sentences with relative clauses and checking agreement, articles, and punctuation before adding more complex structures.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.