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)

The best way to provide enough homes in large cities is to build tall apartment blocks. I agree to this statement because large cities are overly populated and if the real estate keeps building houses to accomodate everyone than they simply cant accomodate everyone. Buildings will have many floors and apartments in this way you can accomodate multiple families to one area of land. If the government decides to keep on making houses then they would hve to cut down the trees from jungles or empty lands and that would cause pollution. That would be unhealthy for the city if the trees are cut down to build a society perhaps if they build a tall apartments and without cutting down any greenery or trees, many families can be easily accomodated in one building.For example now in Karachi there is a culture of living in apartments rather than seperate house due to over population. There are houses but there are buildings in good quantity and millions of people, families live in them. This culture or way of living has been in karachi for many years. So to a greater extent i agree with the statement that the best way to provide enough homes in large cities is to build tall apartment blocks. Equally or sensibly allocating people in the apartment blocks rather than people being homeless or living in Rvs or leaving the city. People move to bigger cities for better job oppurtunities and life and if housing is a problem that could be destructive for them.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student addresses all parts of the task and presents a clear position throughout, stating agreement with the prompt from the introduction to the conclusion. Main ideas are selected and supported, such as discussing population density and environmental preservation. For instance, the writer notes that 'if the government decides to keep on making houses then they would have to cut down the trees from jungles'. However, some ideas remain slightly repetitive or under-developed, and the example regarding Karachi lacks a fully extended comparative analysis. Overall, the response meets the requirements for Band 6.0 as it addresses the prompt adequately with relevant, if somewhat simple, ideas and a clear position.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The response shows a coherent overall arrangement and a clear stance. However, paragraphing is poorly managed, as the entire essay is essentially lumped into a single large block of text with a minor break near the middle, which detracts from visual and logical flow. Cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or missing entirely, leading to run-on sentences and a lack of smooth transitions, such as 'Buildings will have many floors and apartments in this way you can accomodate...' where a semicolon or conjunction is needed. Referencing can also be slightly ambiguous at times. These features align with Band 5.0, where organisation is present, but paragraphing and cohesive devices are inadequate and repetitive.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items and subject-specific terms such as 'overly populated', 'real estate', 'accomodate', and 'greenery'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, including 'accomodate' (accommodate), 'hve' (have), 'seperate' (separate), 'oppurtunities' (opportunities), and 'Rv's' (RVs). Furthermore, phrasing can be somewhat repetitive, such as the repeated use of 'accomodate' and 'culture'. These lexical limitations and errors place the response firmly at Band 5.0, where vocabulary is minimally adequate with errors that occasionally cause slight distraction for the reader.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some capability to construct longer sentences with conditional and causal links, such as 'if the real estate keeps building houses... then they simply cant accomodate everyone.' However, the text contains frequent grammatical and punctuation errors, including run-on sentences, missing apostrophes ('cant'), and punctuation omissions that blur clause boundaries. For instance, the sentence starting with 'For example now in Karachi...' lacks proper punctuation control. Because of the frequent errors in grammar and punctuation that occasionally impede smooth reading, this response corresponds to Band 5.0.

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

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