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 optimum solution for providing enough homes in metrocities is to build high rise appartment blocks rather than conventional bungalows. While tall appartment blocks are cost prohibitive and time taking to build, I contend that high rise apartments offers spacious living and are necessary to meet an unprecedented demand for homes owing rapid urbanization.
When looking at economical aspects, tall apartment blocks will have greater population density compared to bungalows or individual duplex within identical area, fulfilling the increased demand for homes and utilizing the small fraction of big cities, often regarded as the best solution owing to the less space available in metropolitan cities. The land of an high rise apartment is devided upon greater number of homes, causing the price per home to decrease significanly, benefitting the indivduals due to increased affordability. Greater density of homes in a comparatively smaller land area increases the overall population of the city causing higher overall economic output of the city.
In terms of other benefits of high rise apartments, they offer spacious living at very affordable price. Additionally ammenities and recreational activities such as sports(tennis court), library, parking space and garden are offered in high rise appartment for higher standards of living
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The response addresses the prompt by discussing whether tall apartment blocks are the best solution for housing shortages in large cities. However, the position is slightly contradictory in the introduction where the writer states that tall blocks are 'cost prohibitive and time taking to build,' yet argues for them. Furthermore, the response is incomplete, containing only 201 words, which falls significantly short of the 250-word minimum requirement. This under-length impacts the full development of ideas, restricting the score according to IELTS guidelines. While the body paragraphs attempt to explore economic density and amenities, the overall development remains truncated, leading to a Band 5.0 for Task Achievement.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
The essay displays some logical organisation with an introduction and body paragraphs tackling economic and lifestyle benefits. However, the progression is hampered by abrupt transitions and a lack of conclusion. Cohesive devices are minimal, and referencing is occasionally unclear, such as the sudden shift from economic output to lifestyle amenities in the third paragraph. Paragraphing is attempted, but the final paragraph is severely underdeveloped, consisting of only two sentences without a concluding summary. These organisational shortcomings and mechanical cohesion place the response squarely in the Band 5.0 category.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'unprecedented demand,' 'population density,' and 'metropolitan cities.' However, there are noticeable lexical and spelling errors throughout the text, including 'metrocities' (metropolises), 'appartment' (apartment), 'an high rise' (a high-rise), 'devided' (divided), and 'ammenities' (amenities). While the vocabulary used is minimally adequate to convey the basic arguments, these frequent errors in spelling and word choice cause some difficulty for the reader and prevent the text from achieving a higher lexical band.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The student demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures such as 'While tall appartment blocks are..., I contend that...' and 'Greater density of homes in a comparatively smaller land area increases...'. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several errors in article usage and subject-verb agreement, such as 'high rise apartments offers' instead of 'offer', and prepositions like 'economical aspects' instead of 'economic aspects'. Punctuation is generally acceptable, but the frequency of grammatical slips means that error-free sentences are not in the majority.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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