Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Recent IELTS Exams (Canada & India) · 2026-09-19

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people believe that old buildings, such as town halls and art galleries, should be restored, even though this can be costly. Others argue that governments should replace them with new, modern buildings.

Discuss both 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)

Many people think that town halls and art galleries should be replaced with new modern buildings while others argue that goverments should restored it eventhough it is costly. i think both have some some positive impacts as modern buildings are more advanced and low maintanance while preserving cultural heritage is also imortant. i will discuss both views in my further paragraphs.

On The One hand,maintaining old structure is more costly than making a new structure because with time every structure looses it's strenght and started falling slowly because of rain, earthquakes and other natural calamities and restroing them become goverments priority because of people's safety. for example, in situation like earthquakes old structures were not capable of handling moving surfaces which resulted in falling of structure and injuries to the visitors who went there for tourism.Another reason is cost of maintaing an old structure is also higher than making a new one as old structure was not build on future calamities.

On The other hand, Making modern buildings are essential for future needs and safety but preserving our culture is also really imortant because if we will not preserve our culture than future generations will not have Idea about what their ancestors had built in their time. for example, every generation take inspiration from their previous generation on research and building. if we will not preserve that inspiration our children will not have any idea about their history and culture.

In conclusion, making new and modern building's is important for safety and cost saving but destroying our heritage is not a progress because we need to preserve our cultural heritage for future generation so they can get idea of how their ancestors make structure with time.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both views—the need to restore old buildings versus replacing them with modern ones—and provides a clear personal opinion throughout the essay. The student presents relevant ideas, such as safety concerns during natural calamities like earthquakes and the cultural importance of preserving history for future generations. However, some ideas remain slightly under-developed and would benefit from deeper elaboration and more specific, real-world examples rather than generalised statements. For instance, the point about earthquake resilience for historical buildings could be expanded with a concrete historical example. Overall, the task is addressed adequately, placing it firmly within the Band 6 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement and follows a clear paragraph structure, incorporating an introduction, two body paragraphs addressing each view, and a conclusion. Transitional markers such as 'On The One hand', 'On The other hand', and 'In conclusion' are used to guide the reader through the text, although some cohesive devices are mechanical or repetitive. Referencing is occasionally faulty, such as using 'it' and 'structure' vaguely without clear antecedents. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate ideas, yet the logical progression within paragraphs occasionally stumbles due to run-on sentences and punctuation issues, aligning well with the Band 6 descriptors.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'cultural heritage', 'natural calamities', and 'inspiration'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'goverments' instead of governments, 'restored it' instead of restore them, 'eventhough', 'maintanance', 'looses', 'strenght', and 'imortant'. These lexical inaccuracies and spelling slips do not severely impede communication, but they restrict the score to a Band 5.5 because precision and control are lacking.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some ambition in sentence structure with conditional and dependent clauses. However, there are frequent grammatical errors in punctuation, capitalization, subject-verb agreement, and verb tense consistency, such as 'goverments should restored it', 'structure looses it's strenght and started falling', and lowercase 'i'. Complex sentence attempts are often faulty, and run-on sentences appear frequently. Despite these errors, meaning is generally conveyed without complete breakdown, matching the criteria for Band 5.0.

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

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