Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-08-04

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

The best way to provide enough homes in large cities is to build tall apartment blocks.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

More living spaces can be provided by constructing large apartments in populated cities. I agree with this statement. such that. limited urban land can be used efficiently furthermore, more people can house in areas where the land is expensive and scarce.

One of the main reason I support this view is that tall apartment makes efficient use of limited urban land by moreover cities can accommodate more families vertically, and this frees up essential space for public infrastructure such as parks, schools and hospitals. This will also allow the cities to maintain its beauty that comes from green lands. For example in countries like japan and china high rise apartments is already accommodating millions of residents and preserving the areas of park land and green spaces.

Furthermore, constructing high rise apartments, more families can be housed in areas where land is scarce. this can prevent cities from expanding outwards. People living in big cities are already used to their lifestyle their and can not relocate because of lack of housing space so cities are forced to expand outward to accommodate more residents. For example if Lahore city continued to expand horizontally to house it growing population, valuable agriculture land would be lost. and the city will slowly lose its green land so to prevent that high rise apartments are constructed.

In conclusion, I strongly agree that by building tall apartments sufficient housing can be provided in large cities and it also make the efficient use of land while preventing uncontrolled urban expansion.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt and maintains a clear position throughout. The ideas are relevant, focusing on land efficiency and urban sprawl. However, the development is somewhat repetitive, and some arguments lack depth. For instance, the mention of Japan and China is a good start, but it could be expanded to explain exactly how high-rise living impacts the quality of life or infrastructure in those specific contexts. The conclusion effectively restates the position, but the overall development remains at a Band 6 level because the arguments are somewhat predictable and lack the nuanced exploration required for higher bands.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, each with a clear focus. However, the use of cohesive devices is often mechanical or incorrect. For example, the phrase 'such that. limited urban land' is fragmented, and 'by moreover' is an incorrect combination of connectors. Referencing is sometimes unclear, such as in the sentence 'People living in big cities are already used to their lifestyle their and can not relocate'. While the progression of ideas is generally logical, the frequent misuse of linking words and punctuation errors disrupts the flow, keeping the score in the Band 6 range.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks variety and precision. The student relies on basic terms like 'big cities', 'more', and 'good'. There are some attempts at more academic vocabulary, such as 'efficiently', 'infrastructure', and 'horizontally', but these are offset by frequent errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'more people can house' (should be 'be housed') and 'preserving the areas of park land'. The range is sufficient to communicate the main points, but the lack of flexibility and the presence of errors in word formation suggest a Band 6 level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but the accuracy is inconsistent. There are frequent errors in punctuation, such as missing commas and incorrect sentence boundaries (e.g., 'valuable agriculture land would be lost. and the city...'). Subject-verb agreement is also problematic, as seen in 'tall apartment makes' and 'high rise apartments is'. While the meaning is generally clear, the high frequency of grammatical errors, particularly with articles and verb forms, prevents the essay from reaching a higher band. The control of complex structures is limited and often results in errors.

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.