Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-09-29

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In spite of the advances made in agriculture, many people around the world still go hungry.

Why is this the case?

What can be done about this problem?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

There has been alot of development in agriculture industry lately, there was a time when farmers did not have alot of tools and fertilizers at their disposal which was resulting on very slow food growth. But in my opinion the price of the food is not directly proportional to the rate at which we grow the food and there are some reasons for that.

One reason is that the equiment needed now to grow the food is expesive as well as adding the costs of fertilizers, with overall inflation around the world it only makes sense that it costs more to grow food in this economy. Also fuel prices increasing lately effects the operational costs of the equipments and machinery used. Due to overall increase in inflation and low average income alot of people are unable to afford food.

Another reason of the current food production not bieng enough is also overpopulation. Our methods of growing food faster and at a greater scale have increased but the overall population of the world is also increasing with it, which makes it balanced. One example is Pakistan, as it is known as an agricultural country but around one third of the population struggles with basic needs. One reason is not enough food is being produced in the country resulting in the country needing to import basic things which ultimately makes food more expensive. With the poverty rate in the coutry right now, food being expensive is the main reason alot of people sleep hungry.

One solution for this could be making these methods accessible to local small farmers as well in the third world contries. Even through there is alot of development and progress around world, these things are still not available to small farmers which contribute to major part of the total food production. If we provide better education to these people especially in third world countries where education is not very common for farmers.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by identifying reasons why people still go hungry despite agricultural advances—such as equipment and fertilizer costs, inflation, and overpopulation—and proposes solutions, such as making methods accessible to small farmers. The position is generally clear, though some ideas are slightly under-developed or tangential, such as the initial discussion of food prices not being directly proportional to growth rates. Examples like Pakistan are provided to support the arguments, meeting the requirements of the task adequately. However, the final paragraph trails off into an incomplete sentence fragment ("If we provide better education to these people..."), which prevents the solution from being fully articulated and realized. Overall, the task is addressed, but development could be extended further for a higher band.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt to structure ideas into an introduction, body paragraphs addressing causes and solutions, and a concluding thought. Paragraphing is used to separate distinct ideas, such as production costs in the second paragraph and overpopulation/Pakistan in the third paragraph. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical, relying on repetitive transitional phrases like 'One reason is that...' and 'Another reason of...'. Referencing and logical progression are occasionally hindered by punctuation errors, run-on sentences, and comma splices, such as in the opening sentence ('There has been alot of development in agriculture industry lately, there was a time when...'). These issues mean that cohesive relationships are not always smooth or appropriately managed throughout the text.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items related to the topic, such as 'agricultural', 'inflation', 'operational costs', and 'overpopulation'. However, there are noticeable spelling errors throughout the response, including 'alot' (frequently used instead of 'a lot'), 'equiment', 'expesive', 'effects' (used instead of 'affects'), 'bieng', and 'coutry'. Word choice and collocations are also occasionally imprecise, such as 'food growth' instead of 'crop yields' or 'agricultural production'. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they restrict the lexical score because the frequency of spelling mistakes and minor inaccuracies demonstrates a lack of control over less common vocabulary.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures. However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in punctuation, run-on sentences, and sentence structure. For example, the first two sentences are massive comma splices ('...development in agriculture industry lately, there was a time...'). Additionally, there are preposition and article omissions or errors, such as 'in agriculture industry' and 'in the third world contries'. Crucially, the final sentence of the essay is an incomplete fragment ('If we provide better education to these people especially in third world countries where education is not very common for farmers.'), which disrupts grammatical completeness. These recurring errors and structural flaws cause occasional difficulty for the reader and reflect a limited grasp of complex sentence control.

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