Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-29

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 availability of enough homes for the individuals is becoming very problematic in many developed countries, mostly in the urban areas due to high prices and less land available. It is believed that to provide enough homes in large cities is to build tall apartment blocks, I partially agree with this statement because it have many advantages but certain disadvantages as well.

On the first hand, large cities are very expensive to afford by everyone to buy their own house or buy some land to build it. Therefore, the tall apartments built by the government are usually available at fair prices for renting or purchasing. Moreover, the construction of taller buildings occupy less space as compared to building multiple single or double storey buildings in various pieces. So, it saves a lot of land for different purposes such as for schools, hospitals, and other such public or private institutions. As a result, the people are benefited in different ways like with availability of more space to live on and with many commercial sectors.

On the other hand, building the skyscrappers is quite expensive as it require very strong foundations to prevent from natural disasters and other problems realted to safety purposes. Sometimes due to their primary locations, the apartments become very expensive to be afford by normal people. For example, the apartments in the the world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa, are too much expensive that only royals can live there. And there are also safety issues in taller buldings , for instance, in case of an emergency like fire it become very difficult to evacuate the apartment rapidly. So there are lot of chances of losing your life in such circumstances.

In conclusion, building tall apartments for living purposes have pros and cons. So, I partially agreed to this statement. Therefore, a lot of planning about safety and fair price availability is required before taking such measurements.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The student addresses all parts of the task by taking a clear, partial position on whether tall apartment blocks are the best solution for urban housing shortages. The essay outlines both advantages and disadvantages, presenting relevant ideas such as land preservation and construction costs. However, some ideas are slightly under-developed or supported with unusual examples, such as referencing the Burj Khalifa as a standard apartment block rather than a luxury hotel and residence tower. Overall, the position is maintained throughout the essay, meeting the requirements for a Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response features a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, dividing the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion appropriately. Logical progression is generally maintained, though some transitions are somewhat mechanical or awkward, such as 'On the first hand' instead of 'On the one hand'. Referencing is mostly clear, but cohesive devices are occasionally misused or repetitive, leading to a Band 6.0 descriptor level where cohesion is occasionally faulty.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'evacuate', 'foundations', and 'commercial sectors'. However, there are noticeable word-choice and collocation errors throughout the text, including 'less land available' instead of 'less land availability', 'skyscrappers' (spelling error), 'be afford' instead of 'be afforded', and 'taking such measurements' instead of 'taking such measures'. These errors do not impede overall communication, placing the response firmly at Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over structure. However, frequent grammatical errors occur, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('it have many advantages', 'as it require'), article omissions ('in the the world's tallest building'), and preposition misuse ('prevent from natural disasters'). While these errors are noticeable and require some effort from the reader, they rarely impede complete comprehension, justifying a Band 5.5 score.

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