Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

To accommodate rapid population growth, cities are under undeniable pressure to build tall buildings rather than horizontal homes. This is the only way to keep urbanisation organised.

Some of the big cities, like New York and London, have been more focused on building tall buildings for more than 3 decades as of now. The population of New York in the 1900s was growing at a very rapid rate, and then they came up with the idea of building tall apartments for their residents, and it almost solved the lack of land issue and cluster formation. London did the same but in a more organized way, and they shifted some of their citizens to nearby cities as well.

In ancient times, people loved to live in the countryside, but with the start of industrialisation, the world noticed a huge surge in migration from rural to urban areas. Mainly, people migrate in search of a better lifestyle and jobs, and with these unplanned migrations, cities do face huge problems in the form of slums, beggars, and much more. To mitigate this major issue, we need to plan city development, and in my opnion for making a peaceful environment, we need to locate the places for residential areas, commercial areas, and industrial areas. After locating these sectors, we must develop as many vertical buildings as possible wherever we can. This will help us to live in condensed areas and spare the rest of the land for future endeavours.

In conclusion, this is the need of the time that we should always prefer building and living in vertical homes instead of a luxirious 200 acres horizontal farmhouse; if we do not do this right now, future generations will be in a huge trouble.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student addresses the prompt by discussing whether tall apartment blocks are the best way to provide housing in large cities, presenting a clear position in favour of vertical development. The main ideas, such as urbanisation pressures, historical context of cities like New York and London, and the need for zoned city planning, are relevant. However, the development of ideas leans towards generalisation and historical narrative rather than fully exploring counter-arguments or the broader socioeconomic implications of high-rise living. For instance, mentioning 'slums, beggars, and much more' touches on urban issues, but remains underdeveloped. Overall, the response meets the requirements for a Band 6.0 as it addresses all parts of the task with relevant ideas, though some areas require deeper extension and clearer focus on the core prompt.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate historical examples from future planning arguments. However, cohesion at the sentence level is occasionally mechanical or faulty. Transitions like 'And then they came up with' and 'After locating these sectors' create a somewhat simplistic flow. Referencing is generally clear, but logical progression within the third paragraph stumbles slightly when jumping from historical rural migration to modern zoning and then back to vertical buildings. Therefore, the cohesion reflects the characteristics of Band 6.0, where the organization is logical overall, but cohesive devices and paragraph transitions can be repetitive or awkward.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'urbanisation', 'industrialisation', 'mitigate', and 'endeavours'. However, there are notable word choice and spelling inaccuracies, such as 'opnion' instead of 'opinion', 'luxirious' instead of 'luxurious', and the colloquial phrase 'this is the need of the time'. Additionally, phrases like 'big cities' and 'lack of land issue' are overly simplistic. The lexical errors do not impede communication, allowing the reader to easily follow the argument. These features align closely with the Band 6.0 descriptor, representing an adequate range with some inaccuracy and spelling slips.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The writer employs a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating attempts at conditional structures ('if we do not do this right now, future generations will be in a huge trouble') and relative clauses. There are several grammatical errors and awkward phrasing choices throughout the text, including article omissions and misuse ('in a huge trouble' instead of 'in huge trouble', 'the idea of building tall apartments for their residents'). Punctuation is generally acceptable, and the errors do not impede overall communication. Because there is a reasonable mix of sentence types alongside persistent non-systematic errors, this performance warrants a Band 6.0 for grammatical range and accuracy.

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

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