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 proposal to build tall apartments for the solution of housing shortage is a complicated stance and views can vary for this by person to person. From my perpective, I believe it would be a great idea to build tall buildings and flats to provide people with shelter.

A major reason for my belief is that a single skyscrapper can accomodate multiple familes without having the need to build societies. This can be a great solution as generally it would require a large piece of land for facilitating people with housing. Besides that, a major problem in cities for housing crisis is availablity of land for construction of residential buildings. Construction of such of such tall apartment blocks can provide people with homes without having the need for demolition of whole area and destruction of nature through several activities such as deforestation etc. A well defined example for this is China, the Chinese government priortized building huge towers and buildings to overcome the problem of accomodation is big cities such as Xian, Beijing etc. They easily managed to handle the situation without spending large financial resources.

On the other hand, some people also argue that building such huge building can increase the risk to human lives living inside those blocks. Natural disasters such as earthquake, Flood,tsunami etc can might trigger a significant damage to such large proportion of lives. It is often seen that tall and huge buildings also require more prestigous and careful maintainance and lookafter. Providing such maintainance and support will might be an issue for the authorities. For example , Delhi the capital of India have experienced various collapses in result of this policy. So proper administration and authorities should be there to tackle this problem especially in developing nations.

As for my concerns, I agree that construction tall buildings and blocks can overcome the problem of accomodations and housing.It is a great solution for such big problem in big cities but it should be implemented with a reasonable and reliable procedure so that the problem can be solved in a logical way.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of building tall apartment blocks to solve housing shortages, presenting a clear position throughout. The main ideas are generally relevant and supported with examples, such as mentioning China and Delhi, India. However, some arguments lack deeper extension and development, tending to over-generalize rather than thoroughly exploring the socioeconomic impacts. For instance, the discussion on safety risks mentions natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis without linking them directly to the suitability of high-rises in specific urban contexts. Overall, the task is addressed well enough to meet the criteria for Band 6.5, though more fully developed examples would push the response into a higher band.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs addressing both sides, and a concluding stance. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to separate distinct ideas, such as the benefits in the second paragraph and drawbacks in the third. However, cohesion is at times mechanical or faulty, seen in phrases like 'Besides that' and 'On the other hand, some people also argue'. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and transitional phrases lack the flexibility expected at higher bands. While the logical progression is generally easy to follow, the repetitive use of simple cohesive ties prevents the essay from achieving a Band 7.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common lexical items such as 'accommodation', 'skyscraper', and 'deforestation'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, including 'perpective' instead of perspective, 'skyscrapper' instead of skyscraper, 'accomodate' instead of accommodate, 'availablity' instead of availability, 'priortized' instead of prioritized, and 'prestigous' instead of prestigious. These errors do not seriously impede communication, but they highlight a lack of precision and control, fitting comfortably within the Band 6 descriptor.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some ambition with structures like 'Construction of such tall apartment blocks can provide people with homes without having the need for demolition...'. However, there are frequent grammatical errors and awkward phrasings, such as 'for the solution of housing shortage', 'have the need to build societies', 'support will might be an issue', and 'have experienced various collapses in result of this policy'. Punctuation errors are also present, particularly missing spaces after commas and periods. These errors persist throughout the text, meaning that while communication is rarely impeded, error-free sentences are not the majority.

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