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)

It is debated that whether developing tall buildings is the right solution to the rapid growth in population or it is just an inappropriate approach.I agree to some extent to this proposal because this idea could be a threat to environment and difficult for the governments of developing countries to fund these projects.

To begin with, tall apartment blocks provide shelters to millions nowadays.These skyscrapers are built upwards rather wide, covering less ground area. Then these places can be used for other useful projects such as parks,hospitals and restraunts,etc.Also these tall buildings can be effective in terms of solar energy, due to the fact that they are high rise buildings, capturing the strong sunrays, can be very useful in generating the large amount of electricity.

On the other hand, these skyscrapers require a great amount of labour and time. Some developing countries cannot afford the funds for the construction of tall buildings.Also these buildings block sunlight which is a problem for the environment as there are very less possibilities of plants and trees to grow as they need sunlight for the growth.

In conclusion, tall buildings can be used to alter the problem of expasnion of population but these high rise buildings attributes to other harmful fators such as blocking sunlight and the winds , which then is a cause for climate change.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The response addresses the prompt by discussing the extent of agreement regarding tall apartment blocks. You present a clear, albeit partially developed, position stating that you agree to some extent because of environmental threats and funding issues. However, the response is under the required 250-word minimum, containing only 223 words. This negative constraint directly impacts task completion. While you mention advantages such as saving ground area and solar energy generation, and disadvantages like labour requirements and blocking sunlight, these ideas remain somewhat underdeveloped. For instance, the point about solar energy is stated briefly without concrete elaboration. Because the word count requirement is not met, the score is capped in accordance with IELTS marking guidelines.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

Your essay demonstrates a clear overall structure with an introduction, two body paragraphs presenting opposing sides, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate ideas. However, cohesion at the sentence level is sometimes faulty or mechanical. For instance, starting sentences abruptly with words like 'Then' ('Then these places can be used...') or 'Also' creates a slightly disjointed flow. Cohesive devices are present, such as 'To begin with' and 'On the other hand', which help guide the reader through your arguments, but referencing is occasionally unclear, as seen in the phrase 'capturing the strong sunrays, can be very useful' where the grammatical subject is missing.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating topic-specific terms such as 'skyscrapers', 'rapid growth in population', and 'developing countries'. There are some successful attempts to use less common vocabulary like 'expansion'. However, there are noticeable lexical errors, awkward collocations, and spelling mistakes, such as 'restraunts', 'expasnion', and 'fators' instead of restaurants, expansion, and factors. Furthermore, phrases like 'alter the problem' are unnatural and imprecise; a more appropriate choice would be 'address the problem' or 'mitigate the issue'. These errors do not impede overall communication, but they restrict your lexical score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You display a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including relative clauses and conditional ideas. There are several grammatical errors and punctuation issues throughout the text, such as missing spaces after periods, a dangling modifier in 'capturing the strong sunrays, can be very useful', and an awkward opening construction in 'It is debated that whether developing tall buildings...'. Additionally, you have pluralization and preposition errors, such as 'are very less possibilities' instead of 'are very few possibilities' and 'attributes to' instead of 'contributes to'. While these errors occasionally cause the reader some difficulty, your meaning remains mostly understandable.

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