Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-19

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)

It is believed that the most effective method to provide a living place in bigger cities was to built large apartment blocks. From my point of view, i partly agree with this idea.

On the one hand, most of the individual considered that for living in larger cities and urban area they need to construct large buildings or an apartments becuase nowadays these areas were so crowded and they do not have enough space to build houses.This method would be really effective to save safe. Additionaly, it will also improved the infrastructure of the whole area and also play a huge role in confing and the safety for commuting with less space occuping with houses and provide better development of roads.

On the other hand, this idea will not workout for every cities because there are several densely populated areas where they have enough tall buildings a further increase will lead to destruction because it willeventually create a lo pressure into the roads and surrounding areas. In densely populated areas, large apartment complexes can put pressure on public services such as roads, water supplies and electricity.Furthermore, it also depend on the family and who have particularly childerns will prefer space that have opening area such as garden where they spend some quality time together close to nature and would also useful for childern playing activities. Therefore, this development idea should appiled only on citites that are less populated and have low number of residential space.

In conculsion, tall apartment blocks plays beneficial role to overcome the shortage faced for small living space ,but it would be important to consider the area that need this developemta change instead of using this idea for every bigger cities.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student addresses all parts of the task by expressing a partial agreement with the statement that tall apartment blocks are the best way to provide homes in large cities. A position is presented and maintained throughout the essay. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and occasionally drifts into repetitive arguments. For instance, the discussion on infrastructure and population pressure touches on relevant points like public services and family needs, but these ideas are under-developed and lack specific supporting examples. Phrases like 'this development idea should appiled only on citites that are less populated' show a minor tendency to over-generalise. Overall, the response meets the core requirements of Task Achievement at a Band 6.0 level.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a recognisable introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to separate distinct viewpoints, with an 'On the one hand' and 'On the other hand' structure. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. For example, the transitional phrase 'In conculsion' contains a spelling error, and referencing is occasionally unclear, such as the pronoun use in 'this idea will not workout for every cities'. Furthermore, cohesive devices within sentences can be repetitive, as seen with the excessive use of 'and also'. Progression is present, but the logical flow is sometimes disrupted by awkward transitions. This performance aligns with the Band 6.0 descriptors.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common lexical items such as 'infrastructure', 'densely populated', and 'residential space'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, including 'built' instead of 'build', 'becuase', 'safe' instead of 'space', 'confing', 'willeventually', 'lo pressure', 'childerns', 'appiled', and 'conculsion'. While these errors do not severely impede communication, they restrict the vocabulary score. The student demonstrates a sufficient range for basic communication, but the frequency of lexical inaccuracies prevents the score from reaching a higher band. Therefore, a Band 5.5 is appropriate for Lexical Resource.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating clauses introduced by 'because', 'where', and 'that'. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in tense, agreement, and prepositions. Examples include 'It is believed that the most effective method... was to built', 'these areas were so crowded', 'less space occuping with houses', and 'it also depend on the family and who have particularly childerns'. Punctuation is also erratic in places, such as missing spaces after commas and periods. Although these errors rarely impede overall communication, their high frequency across a range of structures means the writing does not consistently demonstrate good control. This corresponds to a Band 5.0.

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