Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-11-14

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)

In many countries throughout the globe, village people are shifting to urban areas, so the population in the countryside is declining.

In my opinion, this statement in not complete even though I think it's a negative development. In this process population is rising in the city areas but not totally declining in the rural areas. Population is just rising and it itself is the negative development.

Population is increasing day by day and it's not a good development for the world. People are moving to the cities, I completely agree with it but in this process village people are finding the opportunity to populate themselves again. For example, I shifted to Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh for my studies, and I know at least a hundred people from my village who have done the same for different reasons. But, every once in a while when I return to my village to celebrate Eid or other occations what I find there leaves me speechless. There are like new born babies all around and todlers running around and some are calling me uncle and some brother. I don't even know a single one of them. So, I figured they never took birth control.

On the contrary more and more people are reaching the already populated big cities and making them more dense. This way they are consuming more space, taking away existing cultivable lands and pollution is rising to an unprecedented scale. Traffic is taking more times from the people than their family. This is truly a negative development which should be stopped immediately.

In conclusion, I accept shifting to larger cities is a negative development and the missing point is that it's just getting worse as population is still continueing to rise in the villages.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You give a clear negative view and support it with relevant points about urban crowding, pressure on cultivable land, pollution and traffic. The personal example about moving to Dhaka also makes the response specific. However, the central claim that rural population is still growing is not clearly connected to the question’s focus on people moving from the countryside to cities. The village birth-rate anecdote is vivid, but the conclusion that people “never took birth control” is an assumption and does not establish how migration affects rural population overall. Develop the main consequences of rural-to-urban movement more directly, and explain how each example supports your position. This would make the response address the task more fully and develop its ideas more clearly.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable introduction, body paragraphs and conclusion, and the main position is repeated at the end. The personal story is placed in a paragraph about rural population, while the next paragraph turns to the effects of city growth, giving the essay a basic structure. However, progression is weakened by the shift from migration to population growth and birth control, which makes the relationship between ideas difficult to follow. Connect each paragraph more explicitly to the question, and use clearer links between the anecdote and the point it is meant to prove. Phrases such as “On the contrary” do not mark a clear contrast with the preceding paragraph, so a more accurate transition would improve cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some relevant topic vocabulary, including “urban areas,” “cultivable lands,” “pollution” and “unprecedented scale,” and the personal example is expressed with some variety. However, the range is uneven and several choices are inaccurate or informal for an academic essay. “Village people” and “populate themselves again” do not express the intended ideas naturally, while “new born babies” and “todlers” contain spelling or form errors. “Traffic is taking more times” is also an awkward collocation. Aim for precise terms such as “rural residents,” “birth rate” and “traffic congestion,” and check spelling and word combinations carefully. This would make the argument clearer and more appropriately academic.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt a mixture of simple and longer sentences, including a complex example beginning “when I return to my village,” and most of the overall meaning remains understandable. However, errors occur in both basic and more complex structures. For example, “this statement in not complete” has an incorrect verb form, “Population is just rising and it itself” has faulty sentence construction, and “population is still continueing to rise” uses an incorrect verb pattern. There are also problems with articles and agreement, as in “in the city areas” and “Traffic is taking more times.” Review verb forms, sentence boundaries and article use, then proofread longer sentences to ensure that each clause is grammatically complete.

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

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