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)

The effective method to give houses in bigger cities is to construct high blocks of apartments. I disagree with this statement because it can lead to problems for individuals living in crowded cities.

No one awares about when an emergency situations can occur. As in the busiest cities, there are thousands of uncertain cases daily reported in the news channels. For example, when an earthquake comes, it damages tall buildings and many deaths of citizens happen at that time. People do not even have time to run because it affects the whole building and it falls in just few seconds. Healthcare workers also do not even get a chance to recover deadbodies from dropped buildings. That's why, it is not an good idea to build higher stories for living as it can cause severe problems during rush hours.

Additionally, Individuals need ventilation for living in apartments. If the buildings are high with more appartment blocks, it will compromise an oxygen. Although, rooms have windows but still it is not effective in summer season especially in developing countries. It is also not suitable for people who have respiratory issues as they cannot even go for a walk in their apartment. For Instance, If fire occurs in particular room in skyscrappers, it will cause suffocation in that building. Consequently, death can occur in specific room with low oxygen.

To conclude, I believe government should adpot alternative strategy for providing enough homes in vibrant cities rather than constructing more blocks in one building.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your essay addresses all parts of the task by presenting a clear position against tall apartment blocks and giving reasons to support your view. However, some ideas are under-developed or less clear than others. For instance, your argument about natural disasters and rescue operations, such as stating that 'healthcare workers also do not even get a chance to recover deadbodies from dropped buildings,' lacks sufficient depth and relies on over-generalised claims rather than well-supported evidence. To move to a higher level, you need to extend your supporting points fully and explore the socio-economic or practical implications of high-rise living in greater detail, ensuring every main point is thoroughly explained with relevant elaboration.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

Your response demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction and conclusion, and the use of paragraphs for distinct ideas. You also employ some cohesive devices to link your thoughts, such as 'Additionally,' and 'To conclude.' However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty, and referencing is not always completely clear. For example, the transition between ideas within your second and third paragraphs feels slightly abrupt, and pronouns or cohesive links do not always connect sentences as smoothly as they could. To improve in this area, you should work on using a wider and more natural variety of cohesive markers and ensure that the progression of ideas from one sentence to the next is seamless and logical throughout the entire essay.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

Your vocabulary is adequate for the task and allows you to communicate your main ideas about urban housing and safety. You attempt some less common vocabulary, such as 'respiratory issues' and 'alternative strategy,' but these attempts are accompanied by noticeable errors in word choice, collocation, and word form. For instance, phrases like 'give houses' instead of 'provide housing,' 'awares' instead of 'are aware,' 'dropped buildings' instead of 'collapsed buildings,' and 'an oxygen' show that your lexical control is limited. To achieve a higher band, you need to expand your range of less common lexical items, pay closer attention to natural collocations, and eliminate word choice errors so that your vocabulary is both precise and appropriate for academic writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

Your writing displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating that you can construct multi-clause sentences such as 'Although, rooms have windows but still it is not effective...' However, your attempts at complex structures are often accompanied by frequent errors in grammar and punctuation, such as missing subject-verb agreement or incorrect prepositions. In the sentence just mentioned, using 'Although' and 'but' together is grammatically incorrect. Other errors include 'an emergency situations' and 'it is not an good idea.' These grammar and punctuation errors sometimes cause difficulty for the reader. To reach the next level, you need to increase your control over complex sentence patterns, ensure consistent grammatical accuracy, and reduce the frequency of basic structural slips.

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

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