Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-14

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)

Many people beleives that the beneficial way to provide homes in large cities is to build tall buildings with many number of small apatments. To some extent it is the best way and I agress with this prespective. but this also comes with many drawsbacks. I'll discuss both positive and negtive impact of that in this essay.

Building big structures made it easier for people who lives in big cities to find a homes. As we all knew in today's rapidly changing world people want to live their lifes in more modren or up-to-date areas. Where they can find all the resouces like schools, colleges, offices, airports and many other things. Therefore people wants to live in big cities but accomodation is the big issue. With the growing population it is very necessary to have sufficent number of houses. consequently building a tall buliding with many apartment blocks is very crucial.

I also lived in these tall buildings for 4 years for my graduation. My apartment was very small,but adequate for one person.

On the other hand it also have some disadvantages because, sometimes during construction many constructors use cheap materials. Which leads to horrible accidents. Because of earthquack and tusnami many buildings collapse, which is very dangerous for many people. Secondly, to bulid these large socities, many constructors cut tress and destroy other natural resources.

If government take step about these issues it I'll be very helpful for society. However, The vital way to provide sufficent number of houses is to make tall apartment blocks.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing whether tall apartment blocks are the best way to provide housing in large cities, acknowledging both advantages and drawbacks. The writer presents a clear position throughout the essay. However, the development of ideas remains somewhat superficial and over-generalized. For instance, the arguments regarding natural resources and natural disasters lack specific elaboration. While the student mentions that constructors cut trees, this point is not fully extended in relation to the central debate. Additionally, the phrasing in the introduction regarding the impact is slightly contradictory by stating agreement with the perspective yet immediately introducing drawbacks. Despite these limitations, all parts of the prompt are addressed, supporting a Band 6.0 rating under the task achievement criteria.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a recognisable introduction, body paragraphs, and a brief conclusion. However, paragraphing is problematic; the student places the personal anecdote ("I also lived in these tall buildings...") as a separate one-sentence paragraph, which disrupts the logical progression of the discussion. Cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or faulty, such as the abrupt transition "I'll discuss both positive and negtive impact of that in this essay." and the informal contractions used throughout. Referencing is occasionally unclear, particularly with pronouns like "that" and "this". There is an attempt to use logical connectors such as "Consequently" and "On the other hand", but overall organisation lacks the smooth flow required for higher bands, placing this aspect firmly at a Band 5.5.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to convey basic ideas about urban housing and construction. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors that detract from the overall quality, such as "beleives", "apatments", "agress", "prespective", "drawbacks", "modren", "resouces", "sufficent", "buliding", "socities", "tress", and "tusnami". The student attempts some less common vocabulary items like "accommodation", "rapidly changing world", and "natural resources", but the frequent orthographic and lexical inaccuracies cause some difficulty for the reader and prevent the score from rising above Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some ability to construct subordinate clauses, as seen in "Where they can find all the resouces..." and "Because of earthquack and tusnami many buildings collapse...". However, grammatical accuracy is weak. There are frequent errors in subject-verb agreement ("Many people beleives", "people wants"), punctuation and sentence boundary issues (e.g., "prespective. but this also comes..."), and incorrect verb tenses or forms ("Building big structures made it easier... to find a homes", "If government take step... it I'll be very helpful"). These frequent errors frequently impede smooth reading and cap the grammatical score at Band 5.0.

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

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