Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-22

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)

The population of world is increasing day by day, and there will be a shortage of space for the upcoming generations if the construction is continued on this pace.

Cities are becoming conjusted overtime , due to continous migration of people from rural areas to cities . If we look at the statement " The best way to provide enough homes in large cities is to build tall apartment blocks" , I agree with this statement beacause it is the need of time to save space for ourselves and generations to come. For example if we would to make 10 houses separately for 10 families it take at least a 1000 meters area to cover these , but if I make one 250 meters squared building and make 10 floors it will easily accommodate these 10 families , thus we can save 750 meters square area , now think large cities have hundreds of thousands of families living in them , now if we work on tall apartment blocks and build skyrockets , we can save lot of space and this looks as the only way to produce enough homes in the overburdened large cities around the globe.For example if we look at China which is the leading economic power , is working on building tall buildings from the previuos few decades and it looks lke they will provide enough homes their citizens in the future.In Imran khan's tenure Pakistan also introduced this idea of building skyrockets to cope the overburden of population on large cities like Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi ,but after his tenure no progress is seen in that project.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses the prompt directly, taking a clear stance in favour of building tall apartment blocks to solve urban housing shortages. The main ideas are supported with a concrete spatial example comparing separate houses with multi-story buildings, and real-world examples from China and Pakistan are brought in to justify the viewpoint. However, the development tends to be somewhat repetitive, and the final paragraph leans heavily on personal/political commentary rather than rigorous analytical extension. The position is well maintained throughout the text. Overall, this performance aligns closely with the Band 6 descriptors because it addresses all parts of the task and presents relevant ideas, though some parts are slightly under-developed or informal in tone.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The text demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear stance established early in the introduction. Ideas flow logically from the general problem of urbanisation to the proposed solution of tall apartment blocks, followed by illustrative examples. However, paragraphing is severely neglected; the entire essay is presented as a single, massive block of text instead of breaking thoughts down into an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Furthermore, cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or repetitive, relying heavily on phrases like 'For example' and 'now'. Referencing within the spatial comparison is slightly confused by mixing first-person pronouns ('if I make one'). Because of the lack of proper paragraphing and basic cohesion management, this section fits the Band 5 descriptors.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms such as 'urbanisation', 'migration', 'accommodate', and 'economic power'. However, there are several noticeable spelling and word choice errors, such as 'conjusted' instead of 'congested', 'continous' instead of 'continuous', 'beacause', and 'previuos'. The student also uses conversational or less precise phrases like 'build skyrockets' instead of 'skyscrapers' and 'cope the overburden' instead of 'cope with the burden'. These lexical errors and awkward collocations cause occasional friction for the reader. The vocabulary is minimally adequate for the task, which corresponds well to the Band 5 descriptors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an attempt to use conditional clauses ('If we look at the statement...', 'if we would to make...'). However, grammatical accuracy is weak, featuring frequent errors such as tense confusion ('if we would to make', 'it take'), missing prepositions, and run-on sentences joined improperly with commas. Punctuation is also problematic, with spaces frequently appearing before commas and periods. While the meaning remains generally understandable despite these issues, the high frequency of structural and mechanical errors prevents the score from reaching a higher band. These characteristics align with the Band 5 descriptors.

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

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