Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-05

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 6.5)

Having the need of own home for yourself and family is increasing nowadays as cities are grwoing. However, this is causing expansion of urban areas at the cost of agricultural lands. It is therefore suggested that the best way to provide sufficient housing units in big cities is to construct high rise apartment blocks. I fully agree with this notion, it is the need of hour to practice this approach to save us from the drastic climate challenges we are facing.

As the world is moving towards advancements in urbanization, the vast agricultural and cultivated lands surrounding the cities are consumed by housing societies to build homes for people who are migrating towards cities from villages, expecting better job and health opportunities. However, this is causing the destruction of these farmlands and food baskets. If i take my own city Lahore as an example, it was getting its vegetables and fruit supply from its suburbs, but the farms were then acquired at cheaper costs and converted to housing societies, resulting in the loss of food supply chain for the citizens, who are now buying costly groceries coming in from the farms that are far away.

Additionally, the rapdis expansion of cities is also contributing to environmental disasters such as bad air quality, increasing road traffic and concrete structures. Beijing, the capital city of China was facing the same issue until they changed their approach towards horizontal expansion and focused on vertical and elevated structures to provide enough housing. They have now controlled the smog and other issues of environment and also provided housing units to 90% of the cityy population

.

In conclusion, it is better to construct tall apartment blocls to adjust people, to save environment.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response successfully addresses all parts of the prompt, maintaining a clear and consistent position of full agreement throughout the essay. The writer presents relevant main ideas regarding the protection of agricultural land and the mitigation of environmental issues like smog and traffic through vertical expansion. However, while the position is clear, some ideas show a tendency toward under-development or slight over-generalisation. For instance, the reference to Beijing provides a specific real-world example, but the explanation of its outcomes could be extended further to fully explore the nuance of the argument. To reach the next level, the writer needs to ensure that every main idea is fully elaborated with deeper analysis and more comprehensive supporting details rather than relying on brief supporting statements.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear logical progression from the introduction through the body paragraphs to the conclusion. Paragraphing is used sufficiently, with each body paragraph focusing on a distinct sub-topic, such as the loss of farmlands and environmental challenges. Cohesive devices are employed to connect ideas, utilizing transitional phrases like 'However,' 'Additionally,' and 'In conclusion.' Nevertheless, cohesion sometimes feels slightly mechanical, and referencing is occasionally less than clear, such as the pronoun reference in the opening paragraph. To achieve a higher band, the writer must use a wider and more flexible variety of cohesive devices while ensuring that paragraph transitions are smoother and reference chains remain precise throughout the entire text.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common lexical items such as 'urbanization,' 'suburbs,' 'environmental disasters,' and 'vertical and elevated structures.' There are, however, noticeable spelling mistakes and awkward word choices, such as 'grwoing' instead of growing, 'rapdis' instead of rapid, 'blocls' instead of blocks, and the phrase 'need of hour' instead of the idiom 'need of the hour.' These errors do not impede overall communication, but they highlight the limitations in lexical precision and accuracy. To elevate the lexical score, the student should expand their range of less-common vocabulary, master accurate word forms, and refine spelling control to ensure precise collocation and natural phrasing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures such as conditional sentences ('If i take my own city Lahore as an example...') and relative clauses. There are some grammatical and punctuation errors present, including missing articles ('Having the need of own home'), incorrect capitalization ('if i take'), subject-verb agreement issues, and a dangling fragment at the end of the third paragraph before the punctuation mark. Despite these slips, the errors rarely impede communication and the meaning remains clear. To reach a higher band, the writer needs to produce a greater frequency of error-free sentences while exercising tighter control over articles, pronoun capitalization, and complex sentence punctuation.

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.