Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-17

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)

Nowdays,providing significant homes has become a major obstacle and spme people believe that constructing tall apartments in big cities can be resulted as a solution .

From my perspective, i strongly agree as high- rise building can accomodate a large number of people and imaking effecitent use of a limited land .

Initially, a skyscrapper building is more effecitent because nowdays even large cities has become increasing crowded and there is less space for building a whole society or indiviaual banglows . In addition , the cost of buying a land and constructed a banglow on our own can get really expensive with the rise in the market. One of the main reason can be that building upwards allow developers to provide accomodation to large families . for example, a single large building can contain hundreds of apartment ,whereas the small amount of land accomodate less people and end up over crowding the space.

Apart from this, A high-rise building can be constructed near offices , or near to public transport , schools , suparmarkets can dramatically make daily life way easier and another reasons can be large apartment complexes can include parks , swimming pool, indoor gym or other activies as such . Similarly it can be good for the nature as it can prevent from tearing down tlarge amount of trees and leaves place for gardens and parks other than spreading houses across the whole city which can also result in more poluition .Therefore i strongly agree with the idea of building tall apartement can provide enough homes in a urban city

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the task by taking a clear and well-developed position on whether tall apartment blocks are the best solution for providing urban housing. The student introduces relevant ideas, such as maximizing limited land space, accommodating large families, and reducing urban sprawl to protect nature. However, some arguments lack full extension and suffer from generalisations or slight lapses in clarity. For instance, the discussion around infrastructure and amenities is somewhat rushed and grouped together into lengthy, complex sentences. Despite these minor limitations, the main position is sustained throughout the essay, and the core ideas directly answer the prompt. Therefore, a band score of 6.0 is appropriate as the task is addressed with relevant ideas, though some areas require deeper development.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear stance presented in the introduction and reinforced in the conclusion. Paragraphing is attempted, with distinct body paragraphs addressing different supporting points. However, logical progression is occasionally hindered by run-on sentences and a lack of precise cohesive devices. For example, transition phrases like 'Initially' and 'Apart from this' are used, but sentences within paragraphs tend to string multiple clauses together without sufficient pause or logical signposting. Referencing is sometimes unclear, such as 'activities as such' and 'other reasons can be'. Paragraphing could also be managed more effectively to separate distinct arguments. Consequently, the cohesion and organizational flow reflect Band 5.5 characteristics, earning a band score of 5.5.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common lexical items such as 'accommodation', 'skyscraper', and 'overcrowding'. However, there are frequent errors in word choice, spelling, and word formation throughout the text. Examples include 'Nowdays', 'spme', 'imaking effecitent', 'indiviaual banglows', 'constructed' instead of constructing, 'suparmarkets', 'activies', 'tlarge', and 'poluition'. While these errors do not completely impede communication and the intended meaning is generally clear, their high frequency prevents the response from achieving a higher band score. The vocabulary is minimally adequate to convey the student's arguments, justifying a band score of 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some ambition with relative clauses and conditional structures. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in verb forms, articles, and agreement. Notable examples include 'can be resulted as a solution', 'as high- rise building can accomodate', 'even large cities has become increasing crowded', and 'building upwards allow'. Punctuation is also problematic, with misplaced commas (e.g., 'perspective, i strongly agree') and missing capitalisation. Because these frequent errors can occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader and impede smooth reading, although the meaning remains mostly decipherable, a band score of 5.0 accurately reflects the current level of grammatical control.

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

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