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)

Providing enough housing in large cities is a major challenge. Although tall apartment blocks can accommodate many people in a limited amount of space, I partly disagree that they are the best solution. The main advantage of high-rise apartments is that they make efficient use of land. In large cities, available land is often limited and expensive. By constructing buildings with many floors, hundreds of families can live in one relatively small area. This can also reduce the need for cities to expand into surrounding rural areas.

However i think in seperate houses there were many problems like traffic, electricity, water and many others. So if we live in apartment there is not too many problems like this because in the apartment peoples are live in small rooms so if there is any facility is available it is distribute in all the peoples . If the tall buildings has some advantages it has also some disadvantages like if there is electric outage there the whole apartment face the electricity problems .

So i think it has many advantages but also minor disadvantages .But i would prefer to live in the tall buildings apartments . Some people like to live in urban areas because they think that people helps to one another when anyone from this in trouble they all are helping them. So i think that people live anywhere they would help themselves . So i think in the modern era it is a good decision to live in apartments if the people feels peaceful there. So in conclusion i also agree to live in apartments.

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 housing, and the writer establishes a clear, albeit somewhat shifting, position agreeing with the statement by the end. The ideas are relevant, noting advantages like efficient land use and disadvantages like power outages. However, some arguments are underdeveloped or overly simplistic, particularly the tangent regarding how people help each other in urban communities. While the main ideas are present, the reasoning lacks depth in places, which aligns the response with a Band 6.0 level of task achievement.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The text is generally coherent with an overall logical arrangement, though the progression is occasionally disjointed. Paragraphing is attempted, but there is a major formatting issue with a paragraph break placed mid-line after the introduction. Cohesive devices are used, but sometimes mechanically or awkwardly, such as 'However i think in seperate houses there were many problems' and 'So i think that people live anywhere they would help themselves'. Referencing is not always clear, and the flow between ideas suffers from abrupt transitions. This corresponds to a Band 5.5 in coherence and cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, with terms like 'efficient use of land', 'rural areas', and 'electric outage'. However, there are noticeable limitations and inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'if there is any facility is available it is distribute in all the peoples' and 'the whole apartment face the electricity problems'. Spelling and punctuation errors are also present, including lowercase 'i' and missing spaces after punctuation. These issues place the lexical resource at a Band 5.5 level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as conditional clauses ('if there is electric outage there the whole apartment face...'). However, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with subject-verb agreement ('peoples are live', 'the tall buildings has'), articles, and tense consistency. Punctuation and capitalization are also faulty throughout the response. While the meaning is mostly still accessible despite the errors, the high frequency of inaccurate complex structures keeps the score at Band 5.0.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.