Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-18

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)

Many people believe that by building tall appartment blocks will be the best way to provide homes in large cities. I vehemently agree with notion that tall building appartments are very important in large cities.

One major advantage of tall apartment buildings is that they make efficient use of limited urban land. In densely populated cities, land is often expensive and difficult to obtain. Building upwards allows developers to provide hundreds of homes without occupying large areas of land. For example, a single high-rise building can accommodate far more families than a group of low-rise houses built on the same plot. This can help cities deal with population growth while protecting land that could otherwise be used for parks or other public facilities.

Another benefit is that high-rise developments can make public services and transportation more efficient. When many residents live in the same area, governments can provide infrastructure such as public transport, water and electricity more efficiently. In addition, people living in apartment blocks may have easier access to workplaces, schools and shopping centres, particularly when high-rise housing is constructed close to existing urban facilities.

the inexorable discussion on this subject matter can keep on going but observing the finer nuance and keeping a deep reverence/veneration to the facts, I would like to espouse my notion building tall appartment blocks plays vital role in today's world.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response addresses the prompt directly, presenting a clear position that the student vehemently agrees with the statement. The main body paragraphs offer relevant and well-developed ideas, such as the efficient use of limited urban land and the improvement of public services and transportation infrastructure. However, the response has a noticeable penalty due to length: it contains 227 words, failing to meet the minimum requirement of 250 words. This under-length issue prevents the full development required for higher bands, as the conclusion is brief and the overall elaboration is restricted. Consequently, the task achievement is constrained to a band 5.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The response is generally coherent with an overall logical arrangement. Ideas are organised into clear paragraphs, starting with an introduction, two distinct body paragraphs featuring supporting examples, and a concluding sentence. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'One major advantage' and 'Another benefit', which guide the reader smoothly through the arguments. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct ideas. However, the conclusion begins abruptly with a lowercase letter ('the inexorable discussion...') and contains overly convoluted phrasing that disrupts the logical flow at the very end. Referencing and cohesive management are mostly clear in the body sections, earning a solid band 6.5.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student attempts a range of vocabulary appropriate for the task, including phrases like 'densely populated cities', 'infrastructure', and 'high-rise developments'. However, there are notable spelling errors and awkward lexical choices throughout the text. For instance, 'appartment' is misspelled twice, and phrases in the conclusion like 'keeping a deep reverence/veneration to the facts' and 'espouse my notion building' are unnatural and imprecise. While the student attempts less common vocabulary, the inaccuracies in spelling and collocation keep the lexical resource within the band 6.0 range.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, using relative clauses ('land that could otherwise be used') and conditional or temporal framing ('particularly when high-rise housing is constructed'). However, there are significant grammatical errors, particularly in the opening sentence: 'Many people believe that by building tall appartment blocks will be the best way', which contains a major structural fault by mixing a 'by' prepositional phrase with a direct subject verb combination. Punctuation and capitalization errors also appear, such as starting the final paragraph with a lowercase 'the'. Despite these errors, meaning is generally clear, placing the performance at a band 6.0.

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

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