Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-08-23

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)

In few nations, the individuals consider crucial to purchase their own house instead of leasing. While this trend offers certain advantages, I believe it also even brings some drawbacks, making both a positive and a negative development.

One major advantage of owing a home is satisfaction. While people feel more confident and less dependent. For example, there is no problem of paying monthly dues, with no any kind of tension in their life. Furthermore, it also provide privacy for those who have their personal residence. Because it provides a greater secureness to families who are living in their own residences. Likely, individuals can come and go in their houses anytime without any concern regarding privacy.

However, despite these benefits, it has also certain concern about lack of independence. People are completely dependent on others ones to live in their houses. For example, those people who are living in accommodations always have rely upon owner because they can get leaving notification at any time. Moreover, it also greatly impact on expenditures because giving monthly rent could be a more effective on their incomes. For instance, people those living in others home spend a lot of money just on renting dues which greatly disturb their life cycle.

In conclusion, there are several negative aspects regarding dependence issue and cost effectiveness for those who prefer to stay in other's home. While there are also significant positive outcomes of personal satisfaction and privacy. Therefore, I believe that this trend has more positive aspects than negative one's.

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 response addresses both parts of the prompt: reasons for home ownership and an opinion on whether it is positive or negative. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited. The arguments regarding 'satisfaction' and 'privacy' are mentioned but not fully explored with depth. The conclusion states the trend is positive, but the body paragraphs contain some confusion, as the second paragraph discusses the drawbacks of renting rather than the benefits of owning, which makes the logical flow slightly muddled. To reach a higher band, ensure that each paragraph clearly links back to the specific question asked and provides more detailed, nuanced explanations.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organised into logical paragraphs, and there is an attempt to use cohesive devices such as 'Furthermore', 'However', and 'In conclusion'. However, the use of these devices is sometimes mechanical or slightly inaccurate, such as starting a sentence with 'Because it provides...' which creates a sentence fragment. Referencing is occasionally unclear, particularly in the second paragraph where the transition between owning and renting is abrupt. The progression of ideas is generally coherent, but the internal structure of the paragraphs could be improved to ensure that each point flows more naturally into the next.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks the precision and range required for higher bands. There are several instances of awkward collocations and word choice errors, such as 'no any kind of tension', 'greater secureness', and 'disturb their life cycle'. The student relies on basic vocabulary and struggles with more sophisticated phrasing. To improve, the student should focus on learning collocations related to housing and finance, and avoid repetitive phrasing. While the meaning is generally clear, the lack of variety and occasional inaccuracies limit the score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors throughout. Examples include 'In few nations, the individuals consider crucial to purchase', 'it also provide privacy', and 'people those living in others home'. Subject-verb agreement and article usage are inconsistent. While the errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to be noticeable and detract from the overall quality of the writing. A greater focus on proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy and sentence construction is necessary.

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

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