Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-08-05
IELTS Writing Task 2 question
In some countries owning a home rather than renting one is very important for people. Why might this be the case? Do you think this is a positive or negative situation?
Student answer (Band 5.5)
It is true that in some counties living at a own house is more crucial compared to the renting one. This is mainly because social recognition and owners can modify their home as their wish. However, I believe it is a negative development because owning home require a huge amount of money and people lose their freedom of changing living area.
On the one hand, there are several major reasons why owning a home is important than renting. Firstly, owning home is quite prestigious in some countries because it provides social recognition. As a result, the homeowners have a great influence in the society. Secondly, people can modify their own home as their taste. So it is common to see that most of the house owners design or repair their home to make it comfortable. Homeowners paint their house with their favorite colors, for example.
However, I believe this situations have some drawbacks as follows. Owning a home creates a difficulty during changing living area. Individual cannot shift their location easily to live in a place with better opportunities because they don't want to leave their own house. Furthermore, a huge amount of money is required at a time to purchase a home, which lead to to financial debt. As a result, excessive debt sometimes creates a mental stress. For instance, around 20% of apartment owners in Dhaka city are debt to the financial organizations such as banks.
In conclusion, owning a home is quite important in many countries because it prestigious and comfortable. However, I believe that it is a negative development basically for owning a house require a large amount of financial support and owners loose freedom of changing their home.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses all parts of the prompt, providing reasons for the importance of home ownership and a clear opinion on whether it is a positive or negative development. The ideas are relevant, such as social status and financial burden. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the point about 'social recognition' is mentioned but not fully explored in terms of why this is a negative or positive societal trend. The conclusion restates the position clearly, but the overall depth of argument is more characteristic of a Band 6, as some points remain slightly superficial and could benefit from more detailed explanation or real-world examples.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is logically organized into clear paragraphs. There is a progression of ideas from the introduction to the body paragraphs and the conclusion. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'On the one hand', 'Firstly', 'Furthermore', and 'In conclusion'. However, the use of these devices is sometimes mechanical or slightly repetitive. Additionally, there are minor issues with referencing and flow, such as the phrase 'this situations have some drawbacks as follows', which is slightly awkward. The paragraphing is appropriate, and the overall structure is easy to follow, meeting the requirements for a Band 6.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing the student to express their ideas clearly. There are attempts to use topic-specific vocabulary like 'social recognition', 'financial debt', and 'financial organizations'. However, there are several instances of word-choice errors and awkward collocations, such as 'living at a own house', 'as their wish', and 'are debt to'. These errors do not impede communication, but they demonstrate a limited range and occasional inaccuracy, which is consistent with the Band 6 descriptor.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('owning home require', 'this situations have'), article misuse ('at a own house'), and prepositional errors ('are debt to'). While these errors are noticeable, they rarely impede the reader's understanding of the main points. The control over complex structures is inconsistent, and the frequency of errors prevents the essay from reaching a higher band score.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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