Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-16

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 5.0)

Tall apartment blocks is the answer to give adequate homes in bigger cities.

This is true to some extent. The ever growing population and the need to have your own house and to live separately has made an increase demand of number of houses. Also, recently there is trend of moving from rural to urban areas, this has put more strain on the need for more houses. One building takes less land and accomodates many families as compared to many houses on land.

Living in a same building means that people are more glued together and they are more likely to befriend and visit neighbours and know what is happening in their adjacent apartment. They can interact with one another when going out even if it's a small greeting. Tha parking space is also shared, which means you get to meet your neighbours there as well. While poeple living in different house have this disadvatge that they are mostly bound to their own home only.

On the contrary, living in apartment will mean you don't get to enjoy your own garden or exposure to sunlight is limited as well. You have your own parking space and you don't to have look for one on daily basis.

In conclusion, both situations comes with pros and cons but tall apartment buildings is the answer to the growing population and urbanisation.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response addresses the prompt by discussing whether tall apartment blocks are the best solution for housing shortages in large cities. You present a position that agrees to some extent, citing reasons related to land efficiency, urbanisation, and social interaction. However, the development of ideas remains limited and somewhat repetitive, particularly regarding community aspects. Furthermore, a crucial penalty must be applied here because your response contains only 228 words, failing to meet the mandatory minimum requirement of 250 words. This under-length impacts the overall task fulfillment, restricting the score for Task Achievement to Band 5.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The essay displays a basic structural framework with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a brief conclusion. However, the logical progression is occasionally hindered by abrupt transitions and disjointed sentences, such as starting paragraphs with isolated thoughts like 'This is true to some extent.' Paragraphing is attempted, but paragraph four contains contradictory statements regarding parking spaces and sunlight that confuse the argument. Cohesive devices are used sparingly and sometimes inaccurately, as seen in 'On the contrary' introducing a point that partially reiterates previous pros and cons rather than building a strong counter-argument. Overall arrangement is coherent enough to follow, matching the Band 5.0 descriptors.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

Your vocabulary is generally basic and repetitive, utilizing everyday terms like 'big cities', 'more houses', and 'small greeting'. There are noticeable lexical errors and inappropriate collocations throughout the text, such as 'adequate homes' instead of 'adequate housing', 'increase demand' instead of 'increased demand', and 'Tha parking space' representing a spelling slip. While you attempt some slightly less common vocabulary such as 'urbanisation' and 'accomodates', the overall range remains limited and minimally adequate for the task, leading to a score of 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The text contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but attempts at complex sentences frequently display grammatical errors. For instance, the opening sentence 'Tall apartment blocks is the answer' contains a subject-verb agreement error. Other errors include 'Living in a same building', 'demand of number of houses', and 'both situations comes with pros and cons'. Punctuation is generally acceptable, but frequent grammatical and word-form inaccuracies cause some difficulty for the reader and prevent the text from achieving a Band 6.0.

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

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