Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

The most efficient way of providing homes to the people living in cities with large amount of population, would be to construct huge buildings with apartment blocks. I believe, it is necessary to construct tall buildings to control the population of people, but other aspects can cause some problems.

By building large buildings the population of the people can be managed. The cities are crowded and living in separate houses would require huge amount of land. It can be better to live in these buildings rather than a big house. Furthermore, the cost of these apartments are less as compared to the rent of the houses. Many families can easily live in these apartments without worrying about the apartment expense.

On the other hand, these tall buildings can cause some problems, such as many extended family can't live in this apartments. Large house is required for the families with large amount of people. The maintenance of these skyscrapers is also required, for instance, cleaning the windows of these buildings would require a large amount labour. Although, these buildings control the population but people who want to live in a house face many hardships. Many people might move out of the city to build a house in a village rather than city.

According to me living in the city is better, but if you have an extended family, living in a house is much preferable. At first, we were living in apartment the cost was easily managed, but we have to move to the village to build the house due to large family members.

In conclusion, building large skyscrapers can control the population of the people living in the cities.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of tall apartment blocks to solve housing shortages in large cities. The writer takes a clear position, stating that while they are necessary, other aspects can cause problems. Main ideas are presented, such as managing population density and affordability, but the development remains somewhat limited and repetitive. For instance, the discussion on families and maintenance lacks deeper extension and relies on general statements rather than fully elaborated arguments. Additionally, the personal anecdote in the fourth paragraph is partially irrelevant to the broader socio-economic prompt. Overall, the performance aligns with the Band 6 descriptors because it addresses all parts of the task with relevant ideas, though some parts are under-developed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a logical progression from introduction to body paragraphs discussing advantages and disadvantages, concluding with a summary. Paragraphing is utilised, separating the intro, pros, cons, personal example, and conclusion. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty. For example, transitional phrases like 'At first, we were living in apartment' lack smooth integration into the text. Referencing is occasionally unclear, such as 'this apartments' and 'this buildings', which disrupts the flow. Furthermore, cohesive devices are somewhat repetitive, indicating that the writer relies on basic links rather than a flexible repertoire. These features place the response firmly at Band 6, where ideas are arranged coherently, but cohesive devices are sometimes faulty.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully communicating ideas about urban housing, skyscrapers, and population management. There are attempts to use less common items such as 'skyscrapers', 'maintenance', and 'extended family'. However, there are notable word choice and collocation errors, such as 'large amount of population' instead of 'large population', 'the cost of these apartments are less' instead of 'rents are lower', and grammatical errors in plurals like 'many extended family can't live in this apartments'. Spelling is generally accurate, but vocabulary limitations and minor inaccuracies prevent the score from reaching Band 7. The lexical range is minimally sufficient to convey the intended meaning without impeding overall communication.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating subordinate clauses introduced by 'such as', 'although', and 'rather than'. However, control over grammar is inconsistent. There are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with subject-verb agreement ('the cost of these apartments are') and singular/plural consistency ('this apartments', 'this buildings', 'family members'). Punctuation is generally acceptable, and while these errors are noticeable, they rarely impede communication. The presence of these recurring errors across a mixed range of structures reflects the Band 6 descriptor, which notes a mix of simple and complex sentence forms with some grammatical errors that do not impede understanding.

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

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