Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-14

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)

Building long-heighted apartment blocks is the best way to give plenty of homes in big cities. I strongly agree to this statement as it is easier to manage resources and better space allocation for other activities.

Nowadays, many countries prefer constructing tall apartments, which means they can control resources such as water and electricity from a single access point. Moreover, the government has to provide these resources in bulk rather than allocating them to separate houses. This saves efforts, time, and cost. For instance, if we want to construct a water tank for a 12 floors apartment, we need to build a large water tank once, while for 12 different homes, separate water tanks will be required. Hence, it will be always more difficult to manage individual houses rather than a tall apartment block.

The government is always trying to take new initiatives to improve its overall

economy, which requires enough land to install industries. For example,during last few months I have observed that almost three new cotton industries are established in my city. Maybe in future it reached to ten if the cotton requirement keeps increasing. However, building apartments can help to reduce the extra space required horizontally, which can be utilized in activities that can assit the country to flourish in the long term.

I believe that tall apartments should be constructed in larger cities, which can cut down the efforts required to manage people. Furthermore, the government could implement different strategies to make the remaining space useful enough.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

Your position is clear from the introduction: you strongly agree that tall apartment blocks are the best way to provide homes. You give two relevant reasons—centralised management of utilities and saving land for other uses—and support them with examples, including the comparison between one apartment building and 12 separate homes. However, the response only partly develops the task. The discussion of cotton industries shifts attention from housing provision, and the claim that apartments reduce the effort of managing people is asserted rather than explained. To strengthen the response, explain more directly how high-rise construction increases the number of homes available, and develop each reason with a clear link to the question and a specific, relevant example.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, two body paragraphs and a conclusion. Linking expressions such as “Moreover,” “For instance,” and “Hence” help show relationships between points, and the water-tank example follows logically from the discussion of utilities. However, progression is uneven. The second body paragraph moves from the need for industrial land to a personal observation about cotton factories, then to apartments, without making the connection fully clear. The conclusion repeats the main position but adds little synthesis. Use topic sentences that state one focused reason, then explain and illustrate it before moving on. Clearer links between the industrial-land example and the housing argument would make the overall progression easier to follow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a range of topic-related vocabulary, including “resources,” “allocation,” “industries,” and “utilized,” and the main ideas are generally understandable. There are also attempts at more formal phrasing, such as “overall economy” and “long term.” However, several word choices and collocations are inaccurate or awkward, which limits precision: “long-heighted apartment blocks,” “agree to this statement,” and “single access point” do not express the intended meanings naturally. Some spelling and word-form errors, including “assit,” also reduce control. Aim to learn vocabulary in common combinations and check that each word fits its context. More precise terms for housing density, infrastructure, and land use would help you explain your argument clearly.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including a conditional example beginning “if we want to construct a water tank” and a relative clause in “which requires enough land to install industries.” These structures help communicate relationships between ideas, but control is inconsistent. For example, “Maybe in future it reached to ten” has an incorrect verb form, while “the government has to provide these resources” shifts awkwardly from the preceding plural subject, “many countries.” There are also punctuation and sentence-boundary issues, such as the missing space after “For example,” and the unfinished-looking line break within the second body paragraph. Review tense consistency, subject–verb agreement, and sentence punctuation, then check complex sentences to ensure their clauses are grammatically complete.

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