Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-01

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 6.5)

The most effective solution to tackle housing crisis and homelessness is by building high rise apartment blocks. Although to most extent I agree that tall apartment blocks seems to benefit many people at once by accomodating them in a limited land space, I also believe that urbanizing the outskirts of the city is another effective way in solving the scarcity of homes.

High rise apartment buildings are currently replacing the traditional housing, as the latter requires more space, can be quite expensive and accomodates only a family or two. Whereas, the apartment buildings provide accomodation and safety to hundreds of the family in a single area of land. This is not only solves the problem of accomodation and safety but also can be economically advantageous.For instance, China has some of the biggest sky scrapers and high riise buildings to accomodate its residents in the metropolitan cities. This allows residents to pay less rent and live in the city. However, with above discussed solution, the idea that many families and individuals need to squeeze and live in a limited space does not seem and ideal situation. The idea of having a backyard and porch and an individual standing house to raise a family should not be a luxury but a necessity for the growing population.

People are now becoming increasingly more and more individualistic and with such mentality they prefer mostly living alone or in a nuclear setting rather than living in a communal setting with shared spaces and less privacy. And if some indiividual has a growing family, it is healthy to live in a open space to accomodate the growth and development of them. For the reason, urbanizing the outskirts of a metropolitan city or a developed city is crucial for the dispersion of its residents rather than concentrate them into a majorely densed area. If the example of Dhaka, Bangladesh is taken into accounts, it can be seen that when government and private companies started developing the outskirts of the city, such as Gazipur, the traffic of people had significantly shifted and new employment opportunities have also emegered.

In conclusion, having tall apartments to improve the housing situation of an are can be a beneficial approach in mitigating the problem but developing the outskirt ares would also provide long term gains.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

Your response successfully addresses all parts of the task by presenting a clear position throughout the essay. You discuss both the advantages of tall apartment blocks and introduce a well-reasoned counter-argument regarding the urbanisation of city outskirts. Your ideas are generally extended and supported, such as when you cite the examples of China and Dhaka to illustrate your points. However, there is a slight tendency to over-generalise in parts, particularly when discussing individualistic mentalities and housing preferences. To reach the next level, you could further substantiate these ideas with more detailed analysis or precise examples, ensuring every point is fully explored without any minor generalisations.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

Your essay demonstrates a clear overall progression with a logical organisation of ideas. Each paragraph has a distinct focus, moving smoothly from your introduction to the benefits of high rises, the counter-argument about suburban development, and finally your conclusion. You make use of cohesive devices such as 'Although', 'Whereas', and 'For instance' to guide the reader through your arguments. However, cohesion is occasionally mechanical, and referencing in phrases like 'with above discussed solution' or 'For the reason' slightly disrupts the natural flow. To achieve a higher band, you should refine your transitional phrases and ensure that referencing is consistently smooth and unobtrusive throughout.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'metropolitan cities', 'individualistic', and 'dispersion'. Your meaning is generally clear despite some spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'accomodate' (misspelled), 'high riise', 'majorely densed', and 'outskirt ares'. There are also minor lexical awkwardness issues, such as 'traffic of people' instead of 'movement of people' or 'commuter flow'. These occasional inaccuracies do not impede communication, but they place your vocabulary firmly in the mid-range level. To improve, focus on mastering less common collocations and paying closer attention to spelling and precise word forms.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

Your writing displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an attempt to use varied syntactic structures such as conditional and subordinate clauses. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation that persist throughout the text. These include article errors ('tackle housing crisis'), subject-verb agreement issues ('tall apartment blocks seems'), preposition errors ('to most extent' instead of 'to a large extent'), and unnecessary capitalization or missing punctuation marks. While these errors rarely impede communication and your complex structures show ambition, the frequency of slips in basic and complex patterns means greater accuracy and control are needed to progress further.

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