Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-11

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)

It is becoming increasingly difficult to provide enough housing in urban areas. Some people believe that building apartments in cities is best solution. I completely agree with this statement. However, I don't believe that other form of housing should be completely banned from metro cities.

On of the main reason to support this argument is that cities has scarcity of land and the land which is available is already very expensive. Apartment make better use of limited land. By building houses with several floods alot of families can live in a small piece of land. It reduce the expansion of urban area to countryside area. For example, city like Mumbai

which is densely populated vertical buildings are best way to provide housing for growing population.

Another advantage of multifloor housing setup is that these developments has various facilities in on house. They include recreational spaces, gym, grocery stores in the building or place nearby. Therefore it reduce reliance of private vehicles. As a result, traffic congestion will be less on roads and carbon emission from vehicles also diminish. These buildings make people more extrovert as they run into neighnors more often and they make this world close knit community

However, I think that apartment should not be the only way of housing in populated cities because conventional homes has their own benefits including, largebackyard and personal parking area. These homes are more suitable for joint families. In addition they provide more privacy.

To sum up, I believe that apartments should be introduced in populate cities so that future housing shortage should be avoided.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses the prompt and maintains a clear position throughout. You have provided relevant arguments for both the benefits of tall apartment blocks and the counter-argument regarding conventional homes. However, some ideas are slightly under-developed; for instance, the example of Mumbai is fragmented and lacks a complete sentence structure. To reach a higher band, ensure that every point is fully explained with a clear link back to the main argument. The conclusion is a bit brief and could have better summarised the main points to reinforce your position.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is logically organised into paragraphs, each with a clear focus. You use some cohesive devices like 'On of the main reason', 'Another advantage', and 'To sum up' to guide the reader. However, there are instances where the flow is interrupted by grammatical errors or awkward phrasing, such as the incomplete sentence regarding Mumbai. Additionally, some transitions are a bit mechanical. Improving the variety of linking words and ensuring that sentences within paragraphs flow more smoothly would help achieve a higher score in this criterion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'scarcity', 'densely populated', and 'congestion'. However, there are several word-choice errors and spelling mistakes, such as 'floods' instead of 'floors', 'neighnors' instead of 'neighbors', and 'largebackyard'. These errors do not generally impede communication, but they do limit the precision of your writing. To improve, focus on learning the correct collocations and proofreading for common spelling slips.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'cities has', 'developments has', 'apartment make') and pluralisation. Some sentences are grammatically incomplete or awkward, such as 'For example, city like Mumbai which is densely populated vertical buildings are best way'. These errors are noticeable and occur throughout the text. Increasing your control over basic grammar and ensuring subject-verb agreement will significantly improve your score.

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

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