Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-11-11

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 5.0)

Rural people are close to nature in any country around the world and now they are moving towards cities. There are some positive and negative aspects of this development.

On the onehand, there are many positive aspects of development behind this phenomena. Firstly, people are moving towards cities because there is a lack facility of education in rural areas so the people are moving now towards cities. Secondly, there is a lack facility of health in rural areas for instance, in any emenrgency situation they have no facility of doctor where they can treat the patient. one of my dearest family member have to face this situation when there mother bacame ill and serious condition at night and their mother became died on the way before reaching at hospital.

Furthermore, there is a lack of facility of transport in rural areas where they have to wait for bus for a long time to travel anywhere so population of countryside is decreasing in the sense of positive development.

On the other hand, there are many negative aspects of development people are moving towards cities and they were far away to nature. In the rural areas people can enjoy fresh vegetables and fresh greens that is not available in cities. In addition, population in the country side is decreasing on the contrary, population is increasing in cities. In cities people has not became the aware of problems of people while rural people are very friendly in nature.

To conclude, with my personal opinion in many countries around the world rural people are moving to cities so the population in the countryside is decreasing and there are many positive and negative aspects of development.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You address the question by presenting both positive and negative effects, and your examples about limited healthcare and education in rural areas are relevant. However, the task asks you to decide whether the trend is positive or negative, and your position remains unclear: the introduction says there are “positive and negative aspects,” while the conclusion repeats this without choosing a side. Some points are also under-developed. For example, the transport issue is mentioned but not explained in detail, and the family medical example is vivid but its connection to the overall judgement is not made explicit. To strengthen the response, state a clear overall view and explain which effects matter most. The response meets the required length; 20 words copied from the prompt were excluded from the count.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a basic paragraph structure, with an introduction, two body paragraphs presenting contrasting sides, and a conclusion. Sequencing words such as “Firstly,” “Secondly,” “Furthermore,” and “On the other hand” help signal the order of ideas. However, progression is limited because the conclusion largely repeats the introduction rather than drawing the discussion together or confirming a clear position. Some links are mechanical or confusing: “so population of countryside is decreasing in the sense of positive development” does not clearly connect the transport point to the claim, and “In addition” introduces an idea that is not clearly related to the preceding sentence. Use clearer links between each reason and its effect, and make the final paragraph synthesise the main points.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “rural areas,” “health,” “education,” “transport,” and “population.” There are also attempts at more specific expressions, such as “emergency situation” and “fresh vegetables.” However, the range is limited and several inaccurate or repetitive phrases make the writing less clear. “Lack facility” is repeated and is not a natural collocation; “facility of health” and “facility of transport” also need more precise wording. Spelling errors such as “emenrgency” and “bacame” are noticeable, while “greens” is vague in this context. Build a wider set of accurate collocations for services and rural life, and check spelling carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and longer sentences, including clauses with “because” and “where,” but the range is limited and complex sentences are often faulty. Errors in agreement and verb forms occur in examples such as “people has not became” and “one of my dearest family member have to face.” Articles and sentence boundaries are also inconsistent, as in “there is a lack facility” and the lowercase “one” after a full stop. These errors sometimes make relationships between ideas difficult to follow, particularly in the family medical example. Practise building accurate sentences with one main clause and a clearly controlled subordinate clause, then check subject–verb agreement, tense, articles, and punctuation.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.