Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-11-04

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 tall condominiums and distributing the apartments among the public is the best approach for ensuring enough residences for everyone. I strongly agree with this view due to several solid reasons.

First of all, providing separate house to every other family will require enough empty plots that are not available in most of the big cities. If the authority starts designing an infrastructure including individual homes for the citizens, the urban planning will end up being congested and the whole purpose of this project will fail. For instance, if three separate homes are planned to be built in a place where there are only 2 houses with enough space in the back and front, ultimately these spaces will be cut short and the additional infrastructure will be built in that place. This will create suffocation and inconvenience for the residents of that area.

Besides that, there will be a direct impact on the financial wellbeing of the people living in the cities. Building a separate house requires acquiring the plot first and then start the construction. Buying a land in this era is a huge cost consuming project and will require a huge amount of loan. Even if someone succeeds to buy the plot with his own savings, designing the house interior and exteriors along with the utility setups will require extra investments which can be a significant burden for many people. If they are offered to buy the apartments, the cost can be cut to half and the additional pressure of working with planners and builders will be reduced substantially.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

Your position is clear from the introduction: you strongly support tall apartment buildings, and both body paragraphs give relevant reasons—limited urban land and the financial burden of building individual houses. The example about fitting three homes into a space intended for two also helps illustrate the land-use point. However, the response does not fully develop the argument: the example is hypothetical and its connection to tall blocks could be explained more directly, while the affordability paragraph makes broad claims without evidence or a concrete example. The essay also needs a concluding paragraph that restates your position and draws the reasons together. Develop each point with clearer explanation and support.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction followed by two paragraphs, each focused on a separate reason. Transitions such as “First of all” and “Besides that” make the sequence easy to follow, and the ideas generally progress from land availability to cost. However, the essay ends without a conclusion, so the overall progression feels incomplete and the position is not brought together at the end. Some links within paragraphs are also mechanical, and the long example beginning “For instance” is difficult to follow because it contains several connected ideas in one sentence. Use clearer sentence boundaries and add a brief conclusion to make the organisation feel complete.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a relevant range of vocabulary, including “urban planning,” “congested,” “financial wellbeing,” “significant burden,” and “substantially.” These choices help communicate the main ideas about space and cost. However, several word combinations are unnatural or imprecise, such as “separate house,” “empty plots,” “cost consuming project,” and “cut to half.” “Suffocation” is also not the most natural term for describing crowded urban conditions. These choices do not prevent understanding, but they make parts of the argument less fluent and precise. Aim for more natural collocations and use vocabulary that describes housing density and affordability accurately.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt a mix of sentence forms, including conditional structures such as “If the authority starts designing…” and “Even if someone succeeds…,” as well as longer sentences that explain cause and effect. The main ideas remain understandable. However, some grammatical errors and awkward constructions reduce accuracy. For example, “providing separate house to every other family” has problems with the article and number, and “requires acquiring the plot first and then start the construction” does not maintain a parallel verb form. The sentence beginning “For instance” is also overloaded, making its relationships between clauses hard to track. Check articles, singular and plural forms, and parallel structures, and divide long sentences where needed.

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