Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-08-14

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)

The contentitious argument that whether owning a home or getting it on lease has spark a debate among many people. In this essay i will illustrate both the aspects with suitable examples. In my perspective this would be an positive development because of its fruitful impacts which it can offer to peoples.

The most significant advantage is freedom which it can serves to individuals. There are a lots of things which owner can do to their home as long as they get the registry of their home. For example they can renovate it by their taste such as painting, hanging pictures on the wall or they can expand without any restrictions. Thereby they can do whatever they want. By contrast people are prohibited to do such things if they are tents. As a result, they deprived from making some special memories with their families. To cite an example, if they wanted to celebrate a small birthday party in their rented house , they can not allowed to change things like paint, wallpapers or remove unnessarry things like furniture or old home appliances.

On the other hand, getting a home on lease likely to be expensive. People have to manage their budget to pay rent even every month which could be use on other things like healthcare or celebrating their weekends effectively. Moreover, possible that if they buy their own home it could be their long term assert which can even better for their future generations. For instance, it is possible that in upcoming years getting a suffiecient job will not be that easy if grandparents or parent already own one it could ease their offspring to be less tens.

In conclusion, although living in a rented home will serves some convenience to tents, geting own one would be more benefical in the term of freedom and to reserve an property.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.5
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The essay addresses both parts of the prompt: reasons for the importance of home ownership and the writer's opinion on whether this is positive or negative. The position is clear from the introduction. However, the development of ideas is somewhat inconsistent. While the point about 'freedom' is well-supported with examples like renovation, the argument regarding financial benefits is less clearly articulated. The explanation of how home ownership helps future generations is a bit vague and could have been more logically connected to the main argument. Overall, the response covers the requirements, but the depth of analysis is limited in places, preventing it from reaching a higher band.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, each with a clear central topic. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'The most significant advantage', 'By contrast', and 'On the other hand', which help guide the reader. However, some transitions are mechanical or slightly awkward, such as 'Thereby they can do whatever they want' and 'Moreover, possible that if they buy...'. Additionally, the referencing is occasionally unclear, particularly in the final paragraph where the connection between 'convenience to tents' and the previous arguments is slightly disjointed. Paragraphing is used appropriately, but the flow between sentences could be smoother.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, though there are several instances of word-choice errors and non-standard collocations. For example, 'contentitious' (contentious), 'getting it on lease' (renting), and 'tents' (tenants) are misused or misspelled. The phrase 'long term assert' should be 'long-term asset'. While the student attempts to use more sophisticated vocabulary, the inaccuracies occasionally impede the precision of the argument. To improve, the student should focus on learning the correct context for academic terms and ensuring accurate spelling of key vocabulary related to the topic of housing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay displays a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, such as 'has spark a debate' (has sparked), 'it can serves' (it can serve), and 'they can not allowed' (they are not allowed). Subject-verb agreement and article usage are inconsistent. While the meaning is generally clear despite these errors, the frequency of mistakes prevents the writing from demonstrating the 'good control' required for a higher band. The student should focus on basic sentence construction and proofreading to eliminate these recurring errors.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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