Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-04

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 world population is dramatically increasing from the past few years and some people think that building the large towers are the solution for the accomodations. I strongly agree with this point of view because of several reasons including colonization and social well-being.

The major advantage to this thought is that when people do live in colonies, they tend to become happier and creative. Moreover, a research study has been done and they concluded that the person living in colonies are more socially active and the chance of depression is dramatically reduced among them. Another important concern is related to deforestation. If every one of us decide to live in their seprate land, the need of deforestion emerges, to fulfill the cause. Eventually, the trees are reduced, endangering the habitat of several animals including birds. In the past few years, deforestation results in the complete extinction of many animals like white indian horse.

Furthermore, another great advantage of building tall towers is the management of the society. The need of building many shops is significantly reduced. A single hypermarket in the area fulfills the several needs of nearby population.

Now a days, the internet has distanced ourselves with the surroundings and the need of globalization is far more than before. Living in these high towers promotes the socialism among the people which helps in developing the ability to care other person.

To conclude above discussion, I strongly believe that the idea of building high tower must be promoted and the awareness about advantages of living in them, must be spread amongst the people.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by expressing a clear position in favour of building tall apartment blocks, but the development of ideas remains limited and under-developed. For instance, the writer mentions 'colonization' (intended to mean living in close communities or colonies) and social well-being, supporting this with a claim that people living in colonies become happier and creative. However, this assertion lacks concrete elaboration, and the supporting example about a research study is vague. Similarly, the argument regarding deforestation is introduced abruptly and relies on imprecise examples, such as the 'white indian horse,' rather than well-supported reasoning. While the main stance is discernible throughout the essay, the arguments tend to generalise without providing the deep, extended support characteristic of higher bands. To improve, the writer needs to select fewer main points and expand them fully with specific, logical explanations and relevant real-world examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays some overall organisation, with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a concluding summary, fulfilling basic structural requirements. However, there is a lack of clear overall progression, and the logical flow between sentences and paragraphs is occasionally disrupted. Cohesive devices are sometimes used in a mechanical or repetitive manner, such as the frequent transitions like 'Furthermore' and 'Moreover,' which do not always establish the most precise logical relationship between ideas. Paragraphing is attempted, but some paragraphs group disparate thoughts together, such as mixing the points about hypermarkets with discussions on internet isolation in the subsequent section. Referencing can also be unclear at times, leaving the reader to deduce the connections between broad statements. To achieve a higher level, the writer must ensure that every paragraph has a single clear central topic and that cohesive devices connect ideas more naturally and fluidly.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is limited but minimally adequate to communicate the basic argument. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary items, such as 'dramatically increasing,' 'extinction,' and 'globalization,' but these attempts are frequently marred by noticeable errors in word choice, collocation, and word form. For instance, terms like 'accomodations' (spelling error) and 'colonization' are used inaccurately in this context, where 'housing developments' or 'communities' would be more appropriate. Additionally, phrases like 'distanced ourselves with the surroundings' display faulty prepositions and unnatural collocations. Spelling mistakes also occur, which, combined with the vocabulary inaccuracies, cause some difficulty for the reader and prevent the response from achieving a more advanced level. To progress, the writer should focus on expanding their range of functional vocabulary and verifying the exact collocations and contextual meanings of less common words before using them.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response demonstrates a limited range of grammatical structures, relying heavily on basic sentence patterns alongside attempts at complex forms that are often faulty. There are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation, particularly regarding article usage ('the large towers', 'the solution for the accomodations'), pluralisation, and subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'defrosting results', 'the person living'). Prepositions within grammatical patterns are also mishandled, such as in 'distanced ourselves with the surroundings' instead of 'from'. While these errors do not completely obscure the central meaning, they are frequent enough to cause noticeable difficulty and distraction for the reader. To move up to the next band, the writer needs to increase the variety of error-free complex sentences and exercise much tighter control over basic grammatical rules, particularly articles, subject-verb agreement, and prepositions.

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.