Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-22

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)

Noeadays ncreasing rate of population have been a rising problem of every big city which leds to shortage of homes. To overcome such issue some crirtics suggests that the best way is to build tall apartment blocks. In this essay we will highlight aforementioned issue before sharing my point of view.

Every big city around the world have a huge population. People prefer to live in cities because they have easily accessible to every living necessities there. for this reason most of individual living in nearby rural areas move with their familes to cities for the purpose of getting jobs or for studies. In this way cities become overcrowded results in shortage of homes Furthermore, there is still majority of workers from nearby villages or towns who travel a long route everyday to cities for their work. They cannot live in cities because of lack of better place to live with families.

Some critics suggests that the best way to overcome the crowdeness and provide enough shelter to people is to build tall apartments blocks.In this way people would have opportunities to live nearbt to their offices or schools. Although it may have some drawbacks of making tall apartment blocks that most of cities loose their beauty because they looked overcrowded with tall buildings. However, this concern is way less than the residents with no shelter.

Many peole likes to live in a seperate home with their own garden. While others prefer an apartments. In my opinion, its a govermnent responsibility to manage their housing sectors and provide people with their choice of area. I think making a tall building may reduce the issue of overpopulation and help people living in cities with all basic necessaties of life.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address the housing shortage and give a position in favour of tall apartment buildings, especially when you say they could help people live near offices and schools and that their drawbacks are less serious than having no shelter. However, the response only partly develops the question of whether this is the best way to provide enough homes. The opening promises to discuss the issue before giving your view, but the essay spends substantial space explaining why people move to cities rather than comparing tall blocks with other housing approaches. The concern about city beauty is relevant, yet it is not supported with an example or explored in depth. State your degree of agreement clearly in the introduction and develop two focused reasons, with specific support, to make the argument more complete.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, background on urban growth, a paragraph presenting the case for apartment blocks, and a concluding opinion. Linking expressions such as “Furthermore,” “Although,” and “In my opinion” help signal relationships between ideas. However, progression is not always smooth: the discussion of rural commuters appears within the explanation of overcrowding without being clearly connected to the proposed solution. The contrast between people who prefer houses and those who prefer apartments is introduced late and not fully integrated into the argument. Some transitions are mechanical, and punctuation occasionally blurs sentence boundaries. Organise each body paragraph around one main reason and use clear references to show how each point supports your position.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant topic vocabulary, including “shortage of homes,” “overcrowded,” “shelter,” and “housing sectors,” so the main subject is generally clear. There are also attempts at more specific phrasing, such as “accessible to every living necessities,” though this wording is not natural and weakens precision. Spelling and word-choice errors are noticeable throughout, including “Noeadays,” “crirtics,” “crowdeness,” and “necessaties”; these can distract the reader. Some expressions are also imprecise, such as “a long route” for a lengthy commute and “loose their beauty” for a loss of visual appeal. Build a more accurate range of collocations for housing and urban planning, and proofread spelling and word forms carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentences, including a concession with “Although” and a relative clause in “workers … who travel a long route.” However, control is inconsistent, and errors in agreement, articles, sentence structure, and punctuation sometimes make the meaning harder to follow. For example, “Every big city … have” should use a singular verb, while “some critics suggests” has a plural subject with a singular verb. The sentence beginning “Although it may have some drawbacks” is awkwardly joined to the following clause, and several sentences lack clear punctuation between ideas. Practise checking subject–verb agreement and constructing complete sentences, especially when combining contrast or cause-and-effect clauses. Greater accuracy in these patterns would make your argument easier to read.

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.