Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

The best way to provide enough accomodation in big cities is to construct tall apartment blocks. I strongly disagree with this statement because building large apartment may not be the only solution.

In large cities, accomodation problem is a big factor. Nowadays, people come from around the country to big cities because it is easier to access work, hospitals, shopping centres and schools. Likewise, government can not provide enough housing to the people working in the city. More accomodation means more people will live in the city. If government decides to make taller buildings, we will have to face many consequences. For example, this includes environment pollution. More construction brings more air, water and sound pollution. Along with that, there will be no empty place for childrens to play. Such as: parks or sports field. As population of the city will grow, more public transportation facilities will add. So, traffic congestion will cause another problem. Other than that, deforestation may occur.

In my opinion, better solution is to create more work places in the countryside. If government builds offices, hospitals, schools, shopping centers in the countryside or subrubs, people will start living there. Also, better transportation facility is needed to commute with the city. So that, people living in subrubs or countryside also get everything accesible to them. This will be convenient for the people and it will not effect the environment like it does in large cities. Childrens will have the opportunity to play and enjoy their time in parks. Traffic congestion will be less comparing to the city.

For instance, recently I moved to the subrubs because I got a job there. I chose this place, because personally I feel that subrubs are more cozier and less noisy place than the city. I moved there along with my family to spend quality time. There are public metro station nearby my home. So, if I needed anything from the city, I could travel to the city any time.

In conclusion, I believe that the disadvantages of building tall building in large cities outweigh the advantages.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

Your essay addresses all parts of the task by presenting a clear position throughout: you strongly disagree that tall apartment blocks are the best solution for urban housing. You introduce relevant ideas such as environmental pollution, traffic congestion, and deforestation, and you propose an alternative solution of developing the countryside. However, some of your ideas are under-developed rather than fully extended. For instance, while you mention that tall buildings lead to environmental pollution and a lack of play areas for children, these points are listed rather than explored with deep explanation or concrete examples. To reach the next level, you would need to sustain your arguments further by explaining the direct cause-and-effect relationships between high-rise living and urban strain, while ensuring all supporting details directly enrich your main points.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

Your essay demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear stance established in the introduction and reinforced in the conclusion. You use paragraphing reasonably well to separate distinct arguments, such as the problems of tall buildings in the second paragraph and your alternative solution in the third paragraph. Nevertheless, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty. You rely heavily on simple transitions like 'Also', 'Other than that', and 'For instance', and some referencing lacks clarity, such as the abrupt shift into personal experience in the fourth paragraph ('For instance, recently I moved to the subrubs...'). To improve your cohesion score, you should integrate your ideas more smoothly using a wider variety of advanced cohesive devices and ensure that paragraph transitions feel natural and logically connected.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

Your vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing you to communicate your main arguments about urban development, but it shows a limited and repetitive range. Throughout the text, you rely on basic terms and make noticeable word-choice, word-form, and spelling errors that affect precision. For example, you misspell 'accommodation' as 'accomodation' and 'suburbs' as 'subrubs' multiple times, and you use awkward phrasing such as 'make taller buildings' instead of 'construct taller buildings'. You also make collocation errors like 'better transportation facility is needed' instead of 'better transportation facilities are needed'. To move up to a higher band, you need to use a wider and more flexible range of less common lexical items accurately, paying closer attention to spelling, word forms, and natural collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

Your writing displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating that you can construct multi-clause sentences such as 'If government builds offices, hospitals, schools, shopping centers in the countryside or subrubs, people will start living there.' However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation that cause some difficulty for the reader. These include issues with articles ('government can not provide', 'better solution is to create'), pluralisation ('childrens', 'tall building'), and prepositions or verb patterns ('effect the environment' instead of 'affect'). To reach a higher standard, you need to exercise greater control over your complex structures, ensuring consistent accuracy in article usage, subject-verb agreement, and plural forms so that your sentences are predominantly error-free.

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