Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-23

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)

Large multistorey apartments is one of a common trend in large metropolitan cities with the objective to accomodate huge population of people in minimal landspace. This helps avoid lack of housing in large cities such as Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi e.t.c and increase the number of houses available for either rent or sale in the city. But there is a also a group of people prefering induvidual houses over apartments due to various induvidual reasons which also needs to be addressed.

In individual houses people get the freedom to do whatever they want with thier home, they can alter it to their wish, design and build it according to their ideology without any concern about other people living in the neighbourhood. It allows them express their individuality in the house which cannot be done in apartments cause most of them looks same. Induvidual houses provides people solitude which adequate no of people prefer these days, in contrast apartments provides less room for solitude and forces them to live under a community.

Regarding apartment it provides more housing oppurtunities for people which is very helpful if large cities. For instance in cities such as Bengaluru and Mumbai which are already overcrowded and facing housing issues, the concept of multistorey apartment helps to solve this by providing aqequate number of houses in minimal landspace. Apartments reduces the burden and cost of bulding induvidual houses and became an optimal choice due to inflation.

In my opinion apartments is the best solution to handle housing issues in large cities by consuming less space and providing more homes for people. Eventhough it is optimal its has its own merits and demerits and according to induvidual preference they may differ.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing the extent of agreement with the statement about building tall apartment blocks to solve housing shortages in large cities. The writer presents a clear position, stating that apartments are the best solution, while also acknowledging the counter-argument regarding individual houses. Ideas are relevant, citing examples such as Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, and Mumbai. However, the development of ideas remains somewhat repetitive and basic. The arguments concerning individual houses and apartments are introduced but not fully extended with deep analysis. This places the response comfortably in Band 6, as it addresses all parts of the task with relevant ideas, though some areas remain underdeveloped.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph structure, moving from an introduction to body paragraphs discussing individual houses and apartments, and concluding with a final opinion. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical and faulty. For instance, the transition 'Regarding apartment it provides...' is grammatically awkward and weak. Referencing is also occasionally unclear, such as 'cause most of them looks same'. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to separate distinct ideas, but the logical progression between sentences within paragraphs could be smoother and more carefully managed. These issues align with the Band 6 descriptor, where cohesion is sometimes mechanical and referencing is not always clear.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms like 'metropolitan cities', 'accommodation', 'solitude', 'overcrowded', 'inflation', and 'demerit'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'accomodate' (accommodate), 'induvidual' (individual), 'thier' (their), 'oppurtunities' (opportunities), and 'aqequate' (adequate). Furthermore, expressions like 'increase the number of houses available' demonstrate basic lexical choices rather than precise or flexible phrasing. Because the vocabulary is sufficient for communication despite these frequent slips and spelling inaccuracies, the response fits the Band 6 profile well.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating clauses with 'due to various... reasons', 'which also needs to be addressed', and 'Eventhough it is optimal...'. However, grammatical accuracy is weak. There are frequent subject-verb agreement errors, such as 'Large multistorey apartments is' instead of 'are', 'most of them looks same' instead of 'look the same', and 'apartments is' instead of 'are'. Punctuation and capitalization are also flawed throughout the text. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they persist across multiple sentences and prevent the response from achieving a higher band. A score of 5.0 reflects the frequent grammatical errors and faulty complex structures.

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

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