Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-11-08

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In many countries around the world, rural people are moving to cities, so the population in the countryside is decreasing.

Do you think this is a positive or a negative development?

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

 

Student answer (Band 5.5)

It is true that nowadays, a significant number of village people are moving to urban areas and these causes the population in the countryside is decreasing throughout the world. Although it has numerous advantages, some diadavantage also noticeable.

There are a number of advantages why rural people are moving to urban areas. One of the advantages is that educational development. For example, when a student transferred from village to cities, they can get numerous opportunity related to educational sector. In cities, institution give better instructor, good educational environment and modern educational tools like computer lab . As a consequence, students can give better concentration and solved any difficult question easily by the help of teacher and classmates. Another significant benefits is that a cities gives people better job opportunity. For instance, by getting many job opportunity option, an unemployed can involved any of them which causes they may lead a better life without any financial instability.

Despite avove advantages, there are some remarkable negative sides. First of all, by moving people from rural area to urban area, a cities can face overpopulation which is a serious issues in a country. To cite an example, if the country has overpopulation, it may causes serious infectious disease swiftly spreed throughout the world. As a result, people suffer disesas in long time. Moreover, it can causes traffic congestion. Hence, when country face overpopulation, many people use pruvate vehicles for going to university and workplace which causes incresasd the traffic jam. Consequently, because of traffic congestion, people unable to rteach their office and institution and they may miss their intervies and class.

In conclusion, even though moving people from village to cities has many positive side, it has some noticeable negative sides due to traffic congestion and overpopulation.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion6.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address the topic by presenting both benefits and drawbacks of rural-to-urban migration, with relevant points about education, employment, overpopulation and congestion. However, the question asks whether this is a positive or negative development, and your position is not consistently clear: the introduction says there are advantages and disadvantages, while the conclusion repeats both sides without deciding which outweighs the other. Some support is also under-developed. For example, the link between overpopulation and infectious disease spreading “throughout the world” is asserted rather than explained, and the employment point is brief. State your overall judgement clearly in the introduction and conclusion, then explain which effects matter most and support them with more precise examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall arrangement: an introduction, a paragraph on benefits, a paragraph on drawbacks and a conclusion. Ideas generally progress in a sensible order, and signposts such as “For example,” “Despite,” “Moreover” and “In conclusion” help readers follow the discussion. This meets the expected level of coherent organisation and shows some effective progression. To make the flow more flexible and precise, avoid relying on formulaic transitions and clarify links between claims. For instance, “As a result” after the disease example does not clearly explain how the preceding point leads to people suffering for a long time. The conclusion also repeats the two sides rather than drawing together the argument into a clear overall judgement.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “educational environment,” “job opportunity,” “overpopulation” and “traffic congestion.” However, the range is limited and several noticeable word-choice, collocation, word-form and spelling errors make parts of the response less natural or occasionally difficult to interpret. Examples include “village people,” “numerous opportunity,” “a cities,” “infectious disease swiftly spreed” and “miss their intervies.” Some phrases, such as “remarkable negative sides,” are also imprecise for an academic argument. Build a bank of accurate collocations for migration, education and urban problems, and check spelling and word forms carefully. More precise vocabulary would help you express the ideas without relying on repeated general terms such as “better” and “causes.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt a mixture of simple and complex sentences, including clauses beginning with “Although,” “when” and “if,” and you use cause-and-effect structures to connect ideas. However, control is inconsistent: errors occur frequently in agreement, articles, plurals and verb forms, and some complex sentences are faulty. For example, “these causes the population … is decreasing” combines structures incorrectly, while “institution give” and “a cities gives” show agreement and article problems. In “an unemployed can involved,” the verb pattern is also incorrect. These errors sometimes make the reader work to understand the intended meaning. Practise building accurate sentence patterns first, especially subject–verb agreement and verb forms after modal verbs, then use complex clauses only when you can control them.

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