Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-28

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)

Providing sufficient housing for the growing population of large cities has become major challenge so constructing tall residential buildings is the most effective way to overcome the housing problem. I partially agree with this statement and in this essay, I am going to discuss both side of statement.

First and foremost, high rise building alone can not only solve the problem of housing shortage because they can very expensive to construct and maintain, also there are some rules and regulations over the residency which people have to follow. Moreover, apartment have limited parking facilities apart from this privacy is one of the main concerns. Additionally, if people want to renovate or change the color of the exterior they need to get permission from residency. In residencies apartments had one color theme they can not allow people to change its color.

On the other hand, high rise building can accommodate more people which solves the problem of providing homes to a growing population. Additionally, Cities have limited land space. So, construct building on a small chunk of land so people can find accommodation at affordable rate because multi story building have nearly 4 appartements per floor so in residency more than 100 families can able to live. for instance, cities like Mumbai having higher price of property because of availability of land so the high rise building very beneficial in such cases. Residencies collect maintenance fees per apartment for regular maintenance and which usually includes gym, swimming and playground and other type of commodities.

In conclusion, tall apartment can help to solve housing shortage in large cities, they make efficient use of limited land, provide homes for a large number of people.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both sides of the issue—whether tall apartment blocks are the best solution for large city housing shortages—and presents a clear, partial position in the introduction. The candidate covers various aspects of the topic, including economic, spatial, and lifestyle considerations, such as construction costs and land scarcity. However, some ideas are underdeveloped and lack sufficient expansion. For instance, the points about exterior color restrictions and maintenance fees are introduced but not fully connected back to the central argument. Furthermore, the example regarding Mumbai is relevant and helps support the discussion, but the overall development tends to be somewhat repetitive in places. Consequently, the performance aligns well with the Band 6.0 descriptors, as all parts of the task are addressed, but the depth of support is uneven across the body paragraphs.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement and follows a recognizable structure with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a brief conclusion. Logical progression is attempted using basic cohesive devices such as 'First and foremost', 'Moreover', 'Additionally', and 'On the other hand'. However, referencing and paragraphing show notable weaknesses. The second paragraph groups disparate ideas together, moving abruptly from construction costs and regulations to parking facilities, privacy, and exterior painting rules. Furthermore, cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or inaccurate, as seen in the phrase 'in residencies apartments had one color theme they can not allow people to change its color', which disrupts the flow. Paragraphing could be managed more effectively to separate distinct arguments. Therefore, the response fits the Band 5.0 descriptors, reflecting some organization but noticeable flaws in cohesion and referencing.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms such as 'housing shortage', 'growing population', 'accommodation', and 'maintenance fees'. There are also attempts to use less common vocabulary, including 'renovate', 'exterior', and 'commodities'. However, there are noticeable word choice errors and awkward collocations that impact precision, such as 'major challenge' missing an article ('a major challenge'), 'construct building' instead of 'constructing buildings', and 'appartements' containing a spelling error. Phrases like 'other type of commodities' are also slightly unnatural in this context. While communication is not severely impeded, these persistent lexical inaccuracies and spelling slips prevent the writing from achieving a higher band. Overall, the vocabulary use is consistent with the Band 6.0 descriptors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The essay displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating attempts at subordination and relative clauses, such as 'Additionally, if people want to renovate or change the color of the exterior they need to get permission...'. However, grammatical control is inconsistent, and frequent errors are present throughout the text. There are issues with subject-verb agreement and pluralisation, such as 'high rise building' instead of 'high rise buildings', missing articles in 'having higher price of property', and run-on structures like 'regular maintenance and which usually includes'. Tense inconsistencies and punctuation errors also occur. Because complex sentences are often faulty and errors are frequent enough to cause some minor difficulty for the reader, the grammatical performance is best evaluated at Band 5.0.

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