Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-02

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 larger cities the demand for homes is increasingly rapidly due to population growth. Some people believe that buildind tall apartments is the effective approach to provide enough homes. I partly agree with this view because high rose buildings can accomodate many people but other hosing solutions are also necessary.

There are some advantages of building tall apartments because they require re;atively little land. Developers can accomodate large number of people in ione verticall building. It is cruical in populated dense area where cost of land is comparatively high .

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.5

Crucially, this response falls well short of the minimum length requirement, containing only ninety words compared to the requested two hundred and fifty. Because of this severe under-length, the task is addressed only partially, reflecting a minimal and restricted approach. You do manage to present a clear position that you partly agree with the prompt, and you briefly introduce relevant ideas such as land efficiency and high-rise capacity. However, these ideas remain severely underdeveloped due to the truncated length of the essay. To improve, you must expand your arguments fully, providing thorough explanations and supporting examples to meet the word count and properly explore both sides of the issue.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

There is some basic organization present, with an introductory paragraph and a body paragraph that attempt to structure your thoughts about building tall apartments. However, the overall progression is limited by the very short text, and cohesive devices are somewhat repetitive or basic, relying on straightforward conjunctions like 'because'. Paragraphing is initiated, but the second body paragraph appears abruptly cut off. To move higher, you need to ensure a clear logical progression throughout a complete essay, utilizing a wider and more sophisticated range of cohesive devices and managing paragraph transitions more smoothly to guide the reader through your arguments effortlessly.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

Your vocabulary choice demonstrates a minimally adequate range for expressing basic ideas about urban housing, using terms like 'population growth', 'vertical building', and 'land efficiency'. However, there are noticeable spelling errors and mechanical issues, such as 'buildind' instead of 'building', 'accomodate' with spelling inconsistencies, 'hosing' instead of 'housing', and punctuation anomalies like 're;atively'. These errors, combined with repetitive phrasing, restrict the lexical score. To achieve a higher band, you should incorporate a wider variety of less common lexical items with correct spelling and precise collocation, avoiding basic errors that occasionally strain understanding.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You display a limited range of sentence structures, relying heavily on simple sentences alongside a few basic complex attempts, such as sentences introduced by 'because'. There are several grammatical and mechanical inaccuracies, including errors in article usage, pluralization, and phrasing, such as 'in populated dense area' instead of 'in densely populated areas' or 'in a densely populated area'. While these errors do not completely prevent the reader from grasping your general meaning, they are frequent enough to highlight a lack of tight control over complex grammatical patterns. To progress, you need to demonstrate a wider mix of structures with frequent error-free sentences.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

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