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)

Nowadays , Cities are becoming more crowded with the increase in population which results in less sapce for homes to build. Many individuals strongly beleived that by constructing taller aparment blocks is the best way to have enough space. Before explainng why i strongly disagree with this idea.

First of all , One of the signifcant obstacle of constructing taller apartment blocks will lead to greater noise pollution .If a significant numbers of residents would start living in an aparments , noise would increase and became a major issue .Since, students , workers and all type of employers may get distracted and irritated by noise. For instance, a student preparing for exam may get distract by noise coming from neighborhood and have not peaceful sleep.

Secondly, the other major contributing factor is the health issues. A handicapped person living in larger buildings rather than in a single storey house may not be able to saw the streets, childrens playing in streest. However, if lifts are installed in each aparments. Consequently, the elecricitiy bills would be increased by government. Moreover, Everyone cannot pay much higher bills of electricity, gas etc.

On the other hand, Some citizens argued that it is the best way to build taller buildings for homes since, it safe more places such as gardens, farms, riversides from over urbanization. In addition to this, people can walk in the evening or have some fresh air to calm their mind.

To sum up, Taller aparments safe more places such as gardens, farms etc. However, it can lead to more noise pullotion , cause health problems mainly among the elders and more taxes.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt and presents a clear position disagreeing with the statement, meeting some requirements of the task. However, the ideas remain limited and under-developed. For example, the argument regarding noise pollution is introduced in the second paragraph with basic support about students getting distracted, but it lacks further extension or concrete reasoning. Similarly, the points concerning health issues and utility bills in the third paragraph are somewhat disjointed and touch upon accessibility without fully exploring the prompt's core debate about housing supply. To move to a higher level, the writer needs to provide fully extended and supported ideas, ensuring that every main point is thoroughly elaborated with relevant explanations and examples throughout the essay.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays some organization with basic paragraphing, attempting to introduce, develop, and conclude the topic. However, there is no clear overall progression of ideas, and the logical flow is frequently disrupted. Cohesive devices are sometimes used, such as 'First of all', 'Secondly', and 'On the other hand', but they tend to be mechanical or repetitive. Additionally, referencing is occasionally unclear, and the transition between sentences can feel abrupt, as seen in the sudden shift from health issues to electricity bills. To achieve a stronger coherence profile, the writer should ensure a smoother logical progression between paragraphs and use a wider, more natural variety of cohesive links without over-relying on basic transition markers.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is limited but minimally adequate to convey the basic message. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary, such as 'urbanization' and 'handicapped', but there are noticeable lexical errors in word choice, form, and spelling, such as 'sapce' for space, 'beleived' for believe, 'aparment' for apartment, 'signifcant obstacle' instead of significant drawback, and 'pullotion' for pollution. Furthermore, awkward phrasing like 'safe more places' instead of saves space causes some difficulty for the reader. To improve lexical resource, the writer needs to expand their vocabulary range, pay closer attention to word forms and collocations, and carefully proofread their work to eliminate frequent spelling and word-choice mistakes.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writing relies on a limited range of sentence structures, and attempts at complex sentences are frequently faulty. There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including issues with subject-verb agreement, tense consistency, and punctuation. Examples of errors include 'Cities are becoming' with an unnecessary comma after 'Nowadays', 'constructing taller aparment blocks is' where a gerund phrase is mismatched, 'a significant numbers of residents would start living in an aparments', and sentence fragments such as 'Before explainng why i strongly disagree with this idea.' These errors cause noticeable difficulty and strain for the reader. To progress, the writer must focus on improving the accuracy of basic grammatical patterns, reducing frequent punctuation errors, and building reliable control over complex sentence structures.

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