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)

Tall apartments are able to house a large number of people. The given prompt states that they are the best method to do so, to which I mostly agree. Housing a large amount of people in tall apartments reduces the need to expand the cities. Concentrating housing in tall buildings also helps in accommodating more people in desirable places.

Cities, especially the large ones, require destroying nature through deforestation and harming the ecosystem. So in order to keep our negative impact on nature to a minimum it is imperative that we abstain from expanding our cities more than necessary. By using the unoccupied vertical space we can ensure that a significant amount of people can be accommodated using a relatively small piece of land. For example, let’s say an average family requires a living space of 100 square meters. So 20 families would require 2000 square meters of land usually. But if we consider a 10 story apartment with two 100 square meter units, the same 20 family can be accommodated in just 200 square metres of land. So we can save 10 times as much land. Even though this is a rough approximation, it is clear how compact we have been able to make cities due to tall apartment blocks.

Another thing to consider is that in cities almost everyone needs to commute to work or school. This leads to a place near to the institution high in demand. But such land is limited. Building tall apartment blocks near high demand places help us provide a large number of people with homes in suitable and desired locations. In turn this can reduce burden on transportation and all the negative effects that come from overuse of vehicles.

However, there are some risks involved with such tall apartment blocks. These buildings take a lot of money to build and also to maintain them. Oftentimes the authorities in charge will try to minimize cost and maximize profit by overcharging the residents or worse neglect the the maintenance and put the safety of residents in risk.

In conclusion, the tall apartment blocks provide some significant advantages to city dwellers. While there are some negative aspects, in my opinion the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

You successfully address all parts of the task by presenting a clear position throughout the essay. You acknowledge the prompt by stating that tall apartment blocks are the best way to provide homes, while balancing your view by noting potential financial and safety risks. Your ideas are generally well extended and supported, particularly when you use mathematical approximations regarding space-saving benefits, such as demonstrating how a ten-story building reduces land usage from 2000 to 200 square meters. However, there is a slight tendency to over-generalise regarding the economic risks and maintenance issues in the fourth paragraph without deeper real-world contextualization. To push into higher bands, ensure every supporting argument is fully fleshed out with nuanced analysis rather than relying on brief speculative risks.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

Your essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear logical progression throughout. You successfully divide your ideas into distinct paragraphs, beginning with an introduction, moving to land-saving benefits and transportation advantages, addressing counter-arguments regarding costs, and finishing with a concise conclusion. Cohesive devices are employed reasonably well to connect your thoughts, as seen with phrases like 'So in order to keep' and 'Another thing to consider'. However, referencing and transitions can occasionally feel slightly mechanical, and certain cohesive devices are repetitive. To achieve a higher band, make use of a wider variety of sophisticated referencing and transitional phrases to link sentences and paragraphs more fluidly without relying on basic conjunctions.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

Your vocabulary range is adequate for the task, successfully conveying your arguments about urban planning and residential architecture. You make successful attempts at less common vocabulary, utilizing terms such as 'deforestation', 'ecosystem', 'approximation', and 'institution'. However, there are minor inaccuracies in word choice, collocation, and phrasing throughout the text, such as 'high in demand' instead of 'in high demand', and 'put the safety of residents in risk' instead of 'at risk'. These occasional lexical slips do not impede communication, placing your writing comfortably at this level. To reach a higher band, refine your collocations and incorporate more sophisticated, less common lexical items with precise stylistic awareness.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

You demonstrate a workable mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing structures like conditional ideas and relative clauses effectively. There is evidence of good control over basic grammatical patterns, and punctuation is generally handled well. Nevertheless, several grammatical errors persist, such as article omission and plural agreement errors, including 'a large amount of people' with countable nouns (better as 'number of'), 'two 100 square meter units', 'the same 20 family' instead of 'families', and the double article in 'neglect the the maintenance'. These errors rarely impede communication, reflecting a solid command where simple sentences are accurate and complex attempts contain occasional slips. To progress further, increase the frequency of error-free complex sentences and eliminate minor agreement and article oversights.

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.