Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-23

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)

In this modern busy era, people are moving and settling in the large cities for their better living. This activity forces the city to organise more living space for the citizens. Does building the high rise apartments could be the best approah to provide enough homes for individuals? This essay will discuss both advantages and disadvantages about this idea and will provide my own opnion at the end.

Firstly, from last many years big cities are attracting more crowd by providing more jobs and high standard living. Undoubtedly, this movement also helds pressure on the native governnment to provide and build new homes for their citizens. Making more tall apartments will help to cover larger number of people under the same roof and with less use of city land. Moreover, this will provides city to make more parks and commerical buildings to help people for better living, For example, Ottawa city has large number of parks, schools, shopping malls, lakes and etc. Aparently, this makes more convenience for ottawa residents to use these places rather than travelling alot.

Secondly, making taller builidngs will lead to more crowd under one roof. Aparently, this will cause frequent noice complains and more infrastructure maintances.Taller building will need more security for safety of the residents. For example, NewYork has the most number of tallest buildings in the world. Moreover, the crime rate of the city is very high aswell.

To conclude, making more taller buildings in the larger cities will help to control the number of homeless people. However, this will also increase crowded places and crime in the area. So, cities should balance the number of high rise buildins and should provide more security for the safety of residents.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address the topic by discussing benefits and drawbacks of high-rise housing, and your conclusion gives a practical position: cities should balance tall buildings with security. The point about using less land is relevant, as is your concern about noise and infrastructure. However, the task asks how far you agree or disagree, and your position is not clear until the conclusion; the introduction promises an opinion “at the end” rather than stating it. Some support is also under-developed: the Ottawa example lists amenities but does not clearly show how apartment blocks created them, while the claim linking New York’s tall buildings to high crime is asserted without evidence. State your degree of agreement early and explain the examples more directly.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure, with an introduction, two body paragraphs presenting contrasting points, and a conclusion. Sequencing words such as “Firstly,” “Secondly,” and “To conclude” help readers follow the main stages. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes mechanical, and links between claims are not always clear. For example, the Ottawa amenities example follows the point about land use, but the connection between high-rise construction and those amenities needs to be explained. Similarly, the New York crime claim does not clearly establish a cause-and-effect link. Some sentences run together or are joined with punctuation that makes the relationship between ideas less clear. Use clearer transitions between each claim and its supporting explanation.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some topic-relevant vocabulary, including “high rise apartments,” “infrastructure,” “residents,” and “security,” and you attempt phrases such as “under the same roof.” This gives you enough language to communicate the main ideas. However, spelling errors and imprecise or unnatural collocations are noticeable, including “approah,” “commerical,” “noice complains,” and “infrastructure maintances.” Some expressions are also vague or awkward, such as “better living” and “more crowd.” These choices sometimes make the reader pause, even though the intended meaning is generally recoverable. Work on accurate spelling and natural combinations of words, and choose more precise terms when describing urban pressures and the effects of high-rise development.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a question in the introduction and a sentence beginning “Although” is not used, but you do connect ideas with clauses such as “which” and “rather than.” Most of the argument remains understandable, but errors in verb forms, agreement, articles, and sentence construction are frequent enough to limit accuracy. For example, “Does building the high rise apartments could be” combines two question structures, and “this will provides city” has an incorrect verb form and missing article. “From last many years” also uses an incorrect time expression. Practise forming direct questions and checking subject–verb agreement, articles, and verb forms. More consistently accurate complex sentences would strengthen the response.

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