Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 15 · 2026-10-02

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 many countries purchasing a house instead of renting one became essential for residents following several reasons. What i believe is, it is a negative situation for people who can't afford to buy a home. In this essay i will provide arguments in favour of my opinion.

Purchasing home is a huge investement that a person has to pay upfront, and numerous people are not wealthy to do so. In various developing countries where economies are unstable and majority of people are facing uncertain employment situations, landlords promote renting homes so they could have a stable side income, and people who can't afford buying a house can rent a reasonable space for them. It is a favourable situation for both parties, its a win win. But if people are forced to ow the houses it will take all their savings which is not a positive approach.

Another significant drawback of this trend is, renting offers many people to live in a house at the same time. Sharing accomodations help in reducing urban saturation. It solves a big problem of living for many migrants people can find good accomodation within their budget. Owning houses will end up with shortage of living spaces. For example, A house where 5 people can live on sharing if that house is owned by a couple it will reduce the resources.

However, owning a house is a dream to everyone and it provides stability and comfort, i do encourage people to own a house if they can afford but it must not become a fundamental necessity.

In conclusion, although house ownership gives people confidence and stability but i believe renting is a very important for people and we should not impose buyin g

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The response addresses the prompt only partially, as the discussion of why homeownership is important is somewhat limited and the negative stance lacks sufficient extension. While the introduction attempts to outline a clear position, the ideas remain underdeveloped throughout the body paragraphs. For instance, the point regarding urban saturation and shared accommodation is introduced but lacks clear logical support and is weakened by over-generalisation. Furthermore, the final paragraph trails off incomplete at the end, leaving the conclusion abrupt and unfinished. To reach a higher band, the writer needs to fully develop all parts of the task with well-supported arguments and fully articulated ideas rather than relying on brief, generalised claims.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

There is some basic organisation with distinct paragraphs, but the response lacks a clear overall progression. Cohesive devices are used mechanically and sometimes inaccurately, such as the abrupt transitions between sentences and paragraphs like 'Another significant drawback of this trend is' followed by an awkward discussion on sharing accommodations. Referencing is also occasionally unclear, such as the ambiguous pronoun use in 'so they could have a stable side income'. Paragraphing is attempted, but the final paragraph breaks off prematurely, disrupting the flow of the text. To improve in this criterion, the writer should ensure smoother logical links between sentences, use cohesive devices more naturally, and maintain a clear directional progression from the introduction through the body paragraphs to a complete conclusion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is limited but minimally adequate to convey basic meaning. There are noticeable lexical errors and awkward word choices throughout the text, such as 'investement' (spelling), 'ow the houses' (word form/choice), 'migrants people', and 'buyin g' (spacing/spelling error). The writer attempts some less common vocabulary items like 'urban saturation' and 'fundamental necessity', but these attempts are marred by inaccurate collocations and minor slips. These errors occasionally cause some difficulty for the reader. To achieve a higher band, the writer must expand their lexical repertoire, demonstrate better control over word formation and spelling, and ensure that less common vocabulary items are used with greater precision and natural collocation.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response displays a very limited range of grammatical structures, relying heavily on simple sentences alongside poorly controlled attempts at complex forms. There are frequent grammatical and punctuation errors that cause difficulty for the reader, including missing articles ('purchasing home', 'is a dream to everyone'), incorrect verb patterns ('renting offers many people to live'), and persistent punctuation and capitalization issues like 'What i believe is' and 'In this essay i'. Subject-verb agreement and prepositional use also show frequent inaccuracies. To move up to the next band, the writer needs to demonstrate a greater variety of complex sentence structures with improved accuracy, paying closer attention to basic grammatical rules, article usage, and sentence boundaries.

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

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