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)

I will absolutely agree with the statement, from my personal experiance 90% of the time huge cities does not have affordable housing for middle class and to coup that goverments build tall buildings so people not only could get a place to stay but also in affordable rent.

I have been to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and I noticed one thing there which was tall buildings, you cannot find an ordinary small house there, most of the population in the city lives in apparment buildings which sometimes have 50+ floors. Skyscrapers in malaysian cities are as common as cars, and when I got to know what were the rent of those appartments, I was completely flabbergasted. Some Air BnB apparments were as cheap as $30 per night in the downtown, which is considered posh areas of the city where you could also get the view of both world second tallest building and twin towers. So, high buildings definitely reduces the rent significantly but thier are some cons too.

Huge buildings in a city decreases the amount of greenry a city could be exposed to. Usually nearby flat lands or forests are cutdown to expand the urban areas which has direct impact on environment, wildlife gets disrupted and landslides chances increases as forests are being cutdown in mountanious areas. Huge concrete buildings absorb huge amount of heat which is then not decipated anywhere causing increase in temperture.

In conlusion, I would say it has both pros and cons but we can easily eliminate the cons if we just give it some attention, otherwise tall buildings just like new york have crutial advantage in a vast city.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task and presents a clear position throughout, agreeing with the given statement. Relevant ideas are introduced, such as the economic benefits of high-rise living and the environmental drawbacks associated with urban expansion. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat uneven. For instance, the discussion on the Kuala Lumpur example touches upon affordability and tourism aspects like AirBnB rates, but lacks deeper analytical extension regarding city planning or long-term urban sustainability. Similarly, the environmental consequences regarding heat retention and deforestation are mentioned rather than fully elaborated with robust support. To reach a higher standard, the writer needs to extend every main idea with more detailed explanations, deeper implications, and comprehensive reasoning rather than relying on brief descriptive statements.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a logical progression of ideas from the introduction to the body paragraphs and the conclusion. Each paragraph has a clear focus, with the first body paragraph discussing affordability through personal experience, the second addressing environmental disadvantages, and the final paragraph summarizing the main arguments. However, cohesion at the sentence level is sometimes mechanical or faulty. Transitions like 'In conlusion' and the linking of clauses within sentences occasionally feel abrupt, and referencing pronouns lack absolute precision in connecting preceding thoughts. Paragraphing is utilized sufficiently to structure the response, but transitions between the economic advantages and environmental disadvantages could be smoother to create a more integrated flow across the entire essay.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The writer demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items and descriptive terminology such as 'flabbergasted', 'urban areas', and 'disrupted'. Communication is generally clear despite a noticeable number of spelling errors ('experiance', 'coup', 'apparment', 'malaysian', 'thier', 'greenry', 'cutdown', 'decipated', 'temperture', 'conlusion', 'crutial') and minor word choice inaccuracies. These lexical errors do not seriously impede the reader's understanding, but they do prevent the writing from achieving a higher level of precision and stylistic sophistication. Expanding the control over less common lexical items and ensuring correct spelling for common academic terms will be essential for lexical improvement.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating attempts at subordination and relative clauses, such as in sentences describing the Kuala Lumpur experience. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation, including subject-verb agreement issues ('huge cities does not have', 'high buildings definitely reduces', 'landslides chances increases'), incorrect verb tenses ('what were the rent'), missing articles ('in downtown', 'in new york'), and run-on sentence structures in the conclusion. While these errors rarely completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to affect the overall control of the text. To progress, the writer must focus on tightening grammatical structures, ensuring correct subject-verb agreement, and polishing punctuation.

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