Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-08-23
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)
The best way to provide enough homes in urban areas is to construct tall apartment blocks. In my opinion, building houses upward helps to reduce over-crowding, provides shelter and ensures there is adequate space for the construction of other essential facilities such healthcare in the environment.
One major importance of constructing buildings vertically is that it ensures that there are enough homes for a large population. Constructions such as storey buildings and duplex are built in a way that it has alot of rooms that can occupy many individuals. As a result, it ensures there a enough rooms to provide shelter for individuals and families. For instance, a three storey building can provides shelter for many residents.
Furthermore, construction tall apartment blocks ensure that there is sufficient landspace for other imortant facilities around residential areas. This means that healthcare and academic facilities are close to residential area. As a result, residents do not have to travel far distance to access basic facilities. Consequently, these developments improve the standard of living of individuals. For example, residents can easily visit local health care centers whenever they fall sick.
In conclusion, there is no doubt that the best approach to provide adequate houses in large cities is to construct appartment vertically. This ensure that there are enough shelter for a largr population. Also, it improves residents lifestyle by ensuring that healthcare, school and economic facilities are close to residential areas.
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AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear position in favor of tall apartment blocks. However, the essay is under the 250-word minimum requirement, which negatively impacts the development of ideas. While the main points regarding population density and land use are relevant, they are somewhat repetitive and lack depth. The arguments could be better supported with more specific, real-world examples rather than general statements. Because the essay is short and the development is limited, it does not fully meet the requirements for a higher band score.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay is organized into clear paragraphs, each with a central theme. Cohesive devices such as 'Furthermore', 'As a result', and 'In conclusion' are used to link ideas, though some transitions feel a bit mechanical. The progression of ideas is logical, moving from the benefits of density to the benefits of land management. However, the overall flow is slightly hindered by the brevity of the response and some repetitive sentence structures. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks the range and precision expected at higher levels. There are several spelling errors, such as 'imortant', 'appartment', and 'largr', which are distracting. The range of vocabulary is somewhat limited, relying on basic terms like 'big' or 'many'. While the meaning is clear, the student needs to incorporate more sophisticated collocations and topic-specific vocabulary related to urban planning and architecture to achieve a higher score.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('a three storey building can provides shelter') and missing articles ('construction tall apartment blocks'). While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are noticeable and occur throughout the text. To improve, the student should focus on proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy and diversifying sentence structures to include more complex clauses.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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