Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 20 · 2026-09-22

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)

In the present era, water plays a vital role for all living being creatures. Without a water they can not survive in the world. A significant number of people believe that the government should provide a water supply with free of cost. I partly agree with this statement because both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Nowadays, many countries are facing the water scarcity problems. Because in urban cities it is very easy to get a proper water supply, but in rural area there has been a shortage of water. To provide a proper water to all regions the government are providing many types of systems like borewell and through dams and canals. For example, in India in Mumbai there are lots of people who lives in slum areas, and they are facing the water issues instead this place located near sea side. But to pass the water to them, government needs to create some high pressure water pipes and they have to maintain them also, so without money how it is possible for them. That's the reason now they are charging for the water taxes from there citizens to provide 24/7 water supply to them.

on the other hand, if they should change their law by providing a free water supply to them, then many people can misuses the water, especially those who are living in the modern cities. For example, in many communities there has been a system like those who forget to close their taps or those who consume the most then they have to pay penalty, so in that way people should be aware about that. But government are not providing the new rules for country side people they will not charge the tax from them and they will also supply a huge amount of water for their agriculture land.

In conclusion, the government should have to check the both scenarios where to apply this law. But in urban cities it is not require to provide free water supply as compared to remote area. But they can reduce the tax amount.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student addresses the prompt by expressing a partial agreement regarding free water supplies, drawing distinctions between urban and rural contexts. A position is maintained throughout the essay. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive in places. For instance, the discussion on Mumbai slum areas illustrates why governments need money for infrastructure, but the argument could be extended further. Similarly, the point about people misusing free water is raised but lacks deep elaboration with concrete statistical or broader sociological examples. While all parts of the prompt are addressed, some ideas remain under-developed, aligning closely with the Band 6 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, separating the introduction, two body paragraphs representing different viewpoints, and a conclusion. Logical progression is generally visible as the student moves from infrastructure costs to the risk of water wastage. However, cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or awkwardly used, such as 'on the other hand, if they should change their law...' and 'instead this place located near sea side'. Referencing can also be slightly ambiguous ('both have their advantages and disadvantages' before introducing clear entities). Paragraphing is present and functional, but overall cohesion suffers from recurring minor awkwardness in transitions.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating topic-related terms such as 'infrastructure', 'scarcity', 'penalties', and 'agriculture land'. However, there are notable word choice errors and unnatural collocations throughout the text, including 'living being creatures', 'free of cost' (instead of 'free of charge'), 'water taxes' (instead of 'water bills' or 'water rates'), and 'misuses the water' (plural/countable confusion with mass nouns). Spelling is generally acceptable, but lexical inaccuracies restrict the score to Band 5.5, as these errors occasionally cause slight hesitation for the reader.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including conditional structures ('if they should change their law...') and relative clauses. However, grammatical control is inconsistent. There are frequent errors in article usage ('a proper water supply', 'in rural area'), prepositions ('charged for the water taxes from there citizens'), and subject-verb agreement or tense consistency ('without a water they can not survive', 'government are providing'). Complex structures are often somewhat faulty. While communication is not severely impeded, the frequency of basic grammatical errors prevents the essay from reaching Band 6.

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

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