Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-06

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)

Home is the basic need of every person and providing homes in big urban areas becomes the need of the day, so, making tall storey buildings is the solution for accomodation related problems. I partially see eye to eye notion which I will discuss in my upcoming writing paragraphs.

To commence with there are ample of reasons, why building tall apartments will be beneficial. First and foremost is that it fulfills the basic need of accomodation. to be more precise, with the rapid growing population getting a house is very difficult task especially in the urban areas, so if tall buildings are built people will get their houses easily. in a survey held by British broadcasting 68% of people are able to get their own house with this kind of model.

On the other hand, it also has some disadvantages to the people. Firstly, health issue. to explain, these apartments are not spacious. People have to adjust in a very congested area and even there are no balconies attached to these buildings leaving no green spaces in the houses. this will detoriate the health of people because they by just spending time in the house only become addicted to phones or televisions creating many kinds of health related issues such as obesity. In an article from The Hindu newspaper 60% of these buildings have no green space attached to the apartments.

to conclude, although there are many benefits of this model, its disadvantages can not be neglected.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of building tall apartment blocks, maintaining a partially agreed position throughout. However, the word count requirement is not met, as the response falls slightly short of the minimum two hundred and fifty words. While the main ideas are relevant, some points remain under-developed. For instance, the discussion on health issues relies heavily on general claims without sufficient extension or detailed explanation. To reach a higher level, you should expand your arguments more fully with deeper analysis and ensure that the length requirement is comfortably exceeded.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The text maintains a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt at paragraphing, moving from an introduction to body paragraphs discussing advantages and disadvantages, followed by a conclusion. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'To commence with', 'On the other hand', and 'to conclude', although some referencing and transitions can feel a bit mechanical. The progression of ideas is generally logical, but paragraphing could be improved by ensuring each body paragraph has a more robust internal structure. To improve further, integrate cohesive devices more naturally and enhance the logical flow between sentences and paragraphs.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is minimally adequate for the task, providing enough range to discuss urban housing. There are noticeable lexical errors, such as 'tall storey buildings' instead of 'storeyed' or 'multi-story', 'accomodation' with a spelling error, and 'detoriate' instead of 'deteriorate'. You attempt less common vocabulary like 'rapid growing population', but inaccuracies in word form and collocation occasionally occur. To achieve a higher score, you need to expand your range of vocabulary, use less common lexical items with greater precision, and pay closer attention to spelling and word formation.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

There is a mix of simple and some complex sentence forms attempted throughout the response. However, frequent errors in grammar and punctuation are present, such as missing capitalisation at the beginning of sentences ('to be more precise', 'in a survey', 'to conclude'), run-on phrasing, and incorrect preposition use. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they restrict the complexity and accuracy of the writing. To move up to a higher band, you must demonstrate better control over punctuation, article usage, and complex sentence structures, ensuring that errors become much less frequent.

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

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