Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-21

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)

In recent years, housing crises is at it peak especially in Urban areas and metropolitan cities. Some people argue that the best approach to tackle this issue is to build multi stories buildings. I agree with this statement and will discuss further in this essay.

First and foremost, the growing population in large cities is the major concern for the housing problem. Nowadays, everyone is looking for better employment and good lifestyle and to achieve it people are moving to urbans areas. The best way to accommodate people is through building tall apartment blocks because it provide a complete solution by absorbing large number of people in limited land. For example, Noida is the biggest example for this situation they have build lot of skyscraper and planned townships in the city to resolve housing problem.

The second important factor is growing number of prices of land which is increasingly dramatically and making it unaccordable for low-wage income families. Moreover, people are having busy schedule which is making it difficult for them to buy a land and build a house from scratch because it require lot of planning and budgeting. Furthermore, people in big cities are mostly migrants and they are not sure that they will be living in the city forever so they end up renting the property.

To Conclude, i strongly believe that building tall apartment blocks in urban areas is the best approach to deal with housing problem

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear position that tall apartment blocks are the best solution to urban housing crises, providing supporting reasons such as land scarcity and urbanization. However, the response has two notable shortcomings. First, it falls short of the word count requirement, containing only 240 words compared to the minimum of 250 words, which incurs a penalty. Second, some ideas are left slightly under-developed, such as the underdeveloped example regarding Noida. While the main arguments are relevant and the position is clear, the lack of full development and failure to meet the minimum length restrict the score. Therefore, it meets the criteria for Band 5.5, showing a partial and developing address of the prompt.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The essay displays a basic overall organization with an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a brief conclusion. However, the progression of ideas is sometimes hindered by abrupt transitions and mechanical cohesive devices, such as 'First and foremost' and 'The second important factor'. Paragraphing is attempted, but the concluding paragraph is incomplete and abrupt, merging directly into the sign-off without a full stop. Referencing is occasionally unclear, as seen in phrases like 'they have build lot of skyscraper and planned townships in the city' where pronoun reference is ambiguous. These issues place the essay securely at Band 5.0, where organization is present but overall progression and cohesion are flawed.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common terms such as 'metropolitan cities', 'skyscraper', and 'migrants'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors and awkward collocations throughout the text, including 'housing crises is at it peak' instead of its peak, 'multi stories buildings' instead of multi-storey buildings, 'unaccordable' instead of unaffordable, and 'growing number of prices of land'. Word formation and spelling inaccuracies occur frequently enough to cause occasional strain for the reader, matching the Band 5.0 descriptor for lexical resource where vocabulary is limited but minimally adequate.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and subordinate structures. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors that occasionally impede understanding. Examples include subject-verb agreement errors ('housing crises is'), missing plural markers ('large number of people' and 'absorb large number'), tense and article errors ('they have build lot of skyscraper', 'buy a land'), and punctuation omissions (such as a missing full stop at the very end of the essay). Because errors are frequent and recurrent across simple and complex structures, the performance aligns best with Band 5.0.

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

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