Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-27

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)

Nowadays the world is facing a serious problem and that is high population rate which leads towards low residential area. This essay demonstrates the effects of building tall apartments in order to manage the population crises in developed cities. The following paragraphs illustrates my opinion on this statment.

Building large apartments as comapired to owining a big house for a small family is truely a great initiative in order to create enough space for future population goals and also to spare space for agriculture and working sector.

For instance, China is currently applying this housing strategy in there community as china owns one of the largest population in the world and it actually works for many reasons.

But on the other hand there are some limitations as well. Many appatments are designed in a way that the area become suffocated and there are very little chances of sunlight to reach that living area. This only thing leads towards many health problems and is not healthy for the future generations as well.

In contrast of building tall apartments it would be sufficient to limit the area where the houses were build as compaired to give them full access to build as large as they wish. According to my perespective, this initiative would me much better and will be able to accepted by the sosiety as comapired to constucting tall apartments.

In conclusion, building taller apartments would be a great initiative in order to provide enough space for housing but this single step will leads to many future complications which we have to focus on as well.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing the extent of agreement regarding building tall apartment blocks to solve housing shortages. A clear position is stated in the introduction and maintained throughout the essay. Relevant ideas are presented, such as land preservation and agricultural space, alongside counter-arguments regarding health issues and lack of sunlight. However, the development of ideas remains somewhat general and superficial. For instance, the reference to China's housing strategy is introduced briefly without detailed extension. While all parts of the prompt are addressed, the arguments would benefit from greater depth and more precise supporting examples to reach higher bands. Overall, the task is adequately addressed in line with Band 6 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, dividing the introduction, main body points, and conclusion logically. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'For instance', 'But on the other hand', and 'In conclusion', to guide the reader through the text. However, referencing and transitions are at times mechanical or slightly faulty, such as 'In contrast of building tall apartments', which impedes smooth progression. Paragraphing is present and generally appropriate, but the internal logical flow between sentences occasionally feels disjointed. These characteristics align well with the criteria for Band 6.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common words and phrases such as 'residential area', 'population crises', and 'infrastructure strategy'. However, there are numerous spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'comapired' instead of compared, 'owining' instead of owning, 'truely' instead of truly, 'appatments' instead of apartments, 'perespective' instead of perspective, 'sosiety' instead of society, and 'constucting' instead of constructing. Furthermore, collocations are sometimes awkward, such as 'limit the area where the houses were build'. These lexical inaccuracies and persistent spelling mistakes place the response firmly at Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over sentence structures. Examples include 'Building large apartments as comapired to owining a big house for a small family is truely a great initiative...' and 'Many appatments are designed in a way that the area become suffocated...'. However, grammatical and punctuation errors are frequent, particularly with subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'the area become'), verb forms (e.g., 'where the houses were build', 'this single step will leads'), and prepositions. These errors occasionally cause difficulty for the reader and prevent the response from achieving a higher band, making Band 5.0 the most accurate descriptor.

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

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