Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-30

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)

In large cities, the demands of housing is increasing rapidly. Some people beleive that to provide enough homes is to construct tall building apartments. I agree with this statement becuase constracting large building is much more efficent use of scare land although it sould be combined with other houses and apartments.

On the one hand, high rising buildings allows the city to accomodate the population in best way. For example, constructing high building is to provide best place of living and good facilities in same place. This will result in that no extra land is used and provids a lot of benefits in price. Other significant reason is that, high density building can support more efficent infrastructure.When large number of residence lives together then the transport, schools, hospitals and shopping malls are very easy to access. This will lead to reduce the dependence of private cars or anyother type of private transport. This is very economical for everyone and it also protect the agricultural land outside the city.

Nevertheless, I would not argue that all tall blocks are the alone solution. Poor planing in construction can result in overcrowded people and excessive pressure on roads, schools , water supplies and other public services. They may also provide limited access to gardens and open spaces, it may have negative impact on life. Government should not think to build large buildings in broader way.Affordable housing policies are also essential to ensure that new developments are accessible to lower-income residents rather than benefiting only wealthier households.

In conclusion, tall apartments are the most efficent way to provide the housing in large scale and densly populated cities because they use land efficent and provide best facilities.Although,they should form part of a wider urban-planning strategy rather than being treated as a universal solution. A combination of high-rise, medium-rise and suburban housing, supported by adequate public services and transport, is likely to provide the most sustainable response to urban housing shortages.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The student addresses all parts of the task by presenting a clear position throughout the essay. The stance that tall apartment blocks are the best way to provide enough homes is stated in the introduction and maintained until the conclusion. Main ideas are supported with relevant explanations regarding land efficiency, infrastructure support, and potential drawbacks like poor planning. For instance, the discussion on how high-density living supports efficient transport and reduces private car dependency is well-reasoned. However, some ideas are slightly repetitive or under-developed, particularly when discussing negative impacts and urban planning strategies. The response meets the length requirement and covers the prompt well, aligning comfortably with the Band 6.5 or 7 descriptors. Overall, it addresses the prompt adequately with a clear perspective.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay is logically organised with a clear overall progression. Paragraphing is used appropriately, dividing the response into a clear introduction, two body paragraphs presenting different sides, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices are employed to connect ideas, such as 'On the one hand', 'For example', 'Nevertheless', and 'In conclusion'. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or mechanical. For example, expressions like 'high rising buildings allows' and minor punctuation issues around commas disrupt the flow slightly. Paragraph transitions are generally clear, but internal sentence cohesion occasionally feels disjointed due to grammatical inaccuracies. The organisational structure is coherent overall, making it easy to follow the writer's argument, fitting the Band 6 descriptors.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common lexical items such as 'infrastructure', 'densly populated', 'sustainable response', and 'urban-planning strategy'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, such as 'beleive' instead of 'believe', 'constracting' instead of 'constructing', 'efficent' instead of 'efficient', 'scare land' instead of 'scarce land', 'high rising' instead of 'high-rise', and 'planing' instead of 'planning'. While these errors do not impede communication and the writer succeeds in conveying their meaning clearly, the frequency of spelling mistakes and occasional awkward collocations prevents the lexical score from reaching Band 7.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures such as 'when large number of residence lives together then the transport...' and 'although it sould be combined with other houses'. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'the demands of housing is', 'high rising buildings allows', 'large number of residence lives'), spelling, and article usage. Punctuation errors, such as missing spaces after commas and periods, are also present. Although these errors do not impede overall communication and the complex structures show ambition, the density of grammatical slips keeps the accuracy score firmly at Band 5.5.

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