Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-08-31

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Access to clean water is a basic human right. Therefore every home should have a water supply that is provided free of charge.

Do you agree or disagree?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

It is believed that accessing clean water is a basic human right. As a result, each households should have a water supply free of cost. To a large extent, I disagree with this viewpoint.

The foremost reason is that it motivate householders to wastage more water. If water is available without cost, many individuals do not care about water consumption. As a result, it leads to excessive wasted of water in many houses. For example, in India everyday thousands litter of water waste in many public places because of free water. In addition, it get burden on the government. This is because it requires lots of work in pipeline, maintenance and staff for water. Therefore, the authorities should allocate more funds for this system.

Furthermore, the other basic facilities should not develop. When the authority invest lots of funds in the water, they spend fewer money in other facilities like schools, hospitals and public transportation services. Consequently it get burden on the taxpayers who pay taxes every year.

However, the other side cannot be rejected due to many reasons. The most important reason is that it may help to low income families. While individuals have to pay less money in water, they can spend money in other facilities like education and travelling. Hence quality stand of people will increase.

In conclusion, although free water can benefit low income families, it has many disadvantages like get burden on taxpayers, less fund for other facilities, get burden on the authority and wastage of water.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

You have addressed all parts of the prompt and maintained a clear position throughout the essay. You provided relevant reasons for your disagreement, such as the potential for water wastage and the economic burden on the government. However, some ideas are slightly under-developed. For instance, the point about 'other basic facilities' could have been strengthened with a more specific example of how infrastructure projects compete for the same budget. While your position is clear, the development of your arguments is somewhat repetitive, particularly regarding the 'burden' on the government and taxpayers. Expanding on the consequences with more depth would help reach a higher band.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is logically organized into paragraphs, each with a clear central topic. You use basic cohesive devices such as 'The foremost reason', 'In addition', 'Furthermore', and 'In conclusion' to guide the reader. However, the progression of ideas is sometimes mechanical, and the use of linking words is occasionally repetitive. For example, the transition between the argument about water wastage and the burden on the government could be smoother. Additionally, some referencing is slightly unclear, such as 'the other side cannot be rejected', which could be phrased more naturally to improve the flow between paragraphs.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is adequate for the task, but it lacks the precision and variety required for a higher band. You rely on simple phrasing, such as 'get burden on' (which is grammatically incorrect) and 'spend fewer money'. There are also some collocation issues, such as 'wastage more water' instead of 'waste more water' or 'excessive wasted' instead of 'excessive waste'. To improve, you should focus on using more sophisticated collocations and avoiding repetitive word choices. While the meaning is generally clear, the lack of range and the presence of word-choice errors limit your score in this criterion.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede the flow. Common issues include subject-verb agreement ('it motivate', 'it get burden') and article usage ('in pipeline', 'the other basic facilities'). There are also errors with pluralization and word forms, such as 'thousands litter of water waste'. While you attempt complex sentences, the frequency of these errors suggests that your control over complex structures is not yet consistent. Focusing on basic grammatical accuracy, particularly subject-verb agreement and prepositional phrases, will significantly improve your writing.

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

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