Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-26

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)

There are alot of populations in large cities in every country because of job opportunities and better living standard.Peoples came from different small cities and near by cities to live in big and large cities because they dont have enough opportunites in their local home town cities.As the population increases in order to manged these huge numbers of population resouces also increases like transport ,electricty,water,gas and homes.

The best way to provide enough homes in large cities is to build tall apartment blocks.the reason is that the appartment has alot of options either you can make it one room appartment for students or 2-3 room appartment for a small family,The main thing is land because in 240 sq yard land you can developed a building with more than 3-4 appartmenst and in that appartment more than 15-20 persons lives without any issue On the otherhand if the single house is developed in that same sq yard than the capacity of peoples are only 3-4 persons.

The other factor are security in appartments are very good as compare to peoples who lives on their houses.As right now peoples from different city or even country reaching the large cities for better job opportunities and better living so in order to facilitate them the government should developed more appartments as compared to single houses because of number of peoples living their

The conclusion is the best way to provide enough homes in large cities is to build tall apartment blocks.because of its capacity and area of that land its allows more people to live comfortably without any issue so the example is if there is 250 sq yard appartment and appartment has 4 floor and each floor has 4 flats so its make capacity of more than 20 peopes for each floor and 50+ peoples for whole appartment now if there is a single house there the capacity of people to live their are 5-6 people maximum

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing whether tall apartment blocks are the best way to provide homes in large cities, maintaining a clear position in favour of high-rise living. The student presents relevant ideas, such as land efficiency, increased capacity for residents, and security benefits compared to single-family houses. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat repetitive, and the examples provided in the conclusion are simplistic and mathematically confusing. The response covers all parts of the task, but the arguments lack depth and formal academic support, placing the performance securely in the Band 5.5 to 6.0 range. Because the ideas are relevant and support the prompt throughout, a band score of 6.0 is appropriate.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response is arranged into four paragraphs, showing a clear attempt at structuring an essay introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. However, progression is hindered by repetitive phrasing and a lack of varied cohesive devices. Words like 'appartment' and 'peoples' are reused frequently without effective referencing pronouns. Paragraphing is present, but internal cohesion is often faulty or mechanical, with run-on sentences and missing punctuation affecting the flow. For example, sentences in the second and final paragraphs are awkwardly joined with commas rather than full stops or appropriate conjunctions. These features reflect the Band 5 descriptors, as the overall organisation is visible, but cohesive devices and referencing are frequently inaccurate and repetitive.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is relatively basic and repetitive, featuring frequent misspellings such as 'alot', 'manged', 'resouces', 'electricty', and 'appartment'. The student attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'opportunites', 'facilitate', and 'capacity', but word choices and collocations are often awkward or inaccurate ('living standard' instead of 'living standards', 'near by cities'). While the range is minimally adequate to convey the main arguments about housing and urban population growth, persistent spelling and word-formation errors cause noticeable strain for the reader, aligning closely with the Band 5 descriptors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but grammatical accuracy is weak throughout the text. There are frequent errors in subject-verb agreement ('populations in large cities... is', 'persons lives', 'apparel has', 'resources also increases'), missing articles ('in order to manged these huge numbers'), and incorrect pluralisation ('peoples'). Punctuation is also poorly managed, resulting in run-on sentences, comma splices, and inconsistent capitalization at the start of sentences. Although the meaning can generally be understood despite the grammatical strain, the high frequency of basic errors prevents the essay from reaching a Band 6, making Band 5 a more accurate representation of current grammatical control.

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

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