Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

Providing accomodations to an ever growing population is and has been one of the major headaches for the governing bodies of large cities. The proposed solution of establishing tall apartment buildings does indeed sound like a reasonable solution for several reasons. Some of them include accomodating as many people as possible per unit area, making housing affordable to the masses regardless of the economic background and finally, making the housing scheme a sustainable and envoirnment friendly effort.

Large cities like Mumbai, Shanghai, New york and others already adhere to the concept of growing vertically rather than horizontally. The primary reason they do so is to accomodate more people per unit area. World's population is growing at an unexpectedly rapid pace, and sooner than later, we will find ourselves in a situation where habitable land becomes scarce because most of the real estate will already be occupied. Therefore, tall housing buildings remain one of the best options.

The growing population gives rise to another debate: whether everyone will even be able to afford housing? Thats precisely where another advantage of such establishments live. These buildings will not only accomodate more people, they will do so cheaper than most independent housing schemes. The cost of construction, maintainence and living in such buildings is significantly lesser, making it an afforable option for the most. These schemes are usually heavily subsidized and people who can't afford to make gigantic upfront payments can often make use of various alternative methods like installments for such accomodations.

Last but not the least, such an effort is indeed sustainable and envoirnment friendly. The more the population grows, the more we will need to cut down forests and trees to make space for humans to live while endagering much of the wildlife and also exposing our planet to other adverse effects of deforestation. We can avoid such consequences if we adopt the method of vertical scaling.

It is indeed a challenge for major cities to provide cheap, sustainable housing to its residents. One of the best ways to overcome that challenge is by expanding our reach, not to the forests, but to the skies.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the task, presenting a clear position agreeing with the statement that tall apartment blocks are the best way to provide enough homes in large cities. The ideas presented are relevant, such as accommodating population density, affordability, and environmental sustainability. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others. For instance, the point regarding affordability and subsidies in the third paragraph is elaborated well with mentions of maintenance and installments, whereas the environmental argument in the fourth paragraph remains somewhat general, noting only the avoidance of deforestation without deeper exploration. This unevenness in extension places the response firmly within the band, showing strong elements of addressing the complete prompt with a consistent stance throughout.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear logical progression throughout. Each paragraph has a distinct focus, moving smoothly from an introduction of the topic to density, affordability, environmental factors, and a concluding summary. Cohesive devices are used to connect ideas, such as transitioning with phrases like 'The growing population gives rise to another debate' and 'Last but not the least'. However, referencing and cohesion can occasionally feel slightly mechanical or repetitive in transitions. Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately, clearly dividing the main arguments to guide the reader effortlessly through the writer's line of reasoning.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The writer uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common lexical items such as 'governing bodies', 'subsidized', and 'vertical scaling'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors that prevent a higher score, including repeated misspellings like 'accomodations' (accommodations), 'envoirnment' (environment), 'maintainence' (maintenance), 'afforable' (affordable), and 'endagering' (endangering). While these errors do not seriously impede communication, the frequency of spelling slips in key thematic vocabulary indicates that lexical control is currently limited to a moderate level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response demonstrates a reasonable mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional ideas effectively, as seen in sentences like 'We can avoid such consequences if we adopt the method of vertical scaling.' There are some errors in grammar and punctuation, such as missing apostrophes ('World's' without an article, 'Thats' instead of 'That's'), pronoun agreement issues ('housing to its residents' where housing is uncountable/singular leading to slight mismatch with plural implications), and minor prepositional inconsistencies. Nevertheless, these errors rarely impede communication, and the grammatical control reflects a solid foundation with clear mixing of sentence structures.

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