Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-08-21

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, people from rural areas are moving to cities for different reasons. Because of this, the population of villages and countryside is becoming lower. In my opinion, I think this is a negative development because it can create problems for both rural areas and cities.

There are some reasons why people move to cities. First cities have more job opportunities and people can earn better salary. Also, cities have better schools, colleges and hospitals. For example, many young people move to big cities after finishing their studies because they want to find a good job and have a better lifestyle.

However, this movement can cause problems in rural areas. When many young people leave villages, there are less workers for farming and other local businesses. As a result, agriculture can be affected. Cities can also become overcrowded because a large number of people come there for work. This can lead to traffic, pollution and expensive housing.

In conclusion, I believe that moving from rural areas to cities is mostly a negative development. Although people can get better jobs and services, it can create many problems for villages as well as cities.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response addresses the prompt by identifying the migration as a negative development and providing reasons. However, the essay is significantly under the 250-word minimum requirement at only 193 words. This lack of length prevents the full development of ideas; for instance, the impact on agriculture and the specific problems in cities are mentioned but not sufficiently explored or supported with detailed examples. To reach a higher band, you must expand your arguments with more depth and provide more substantial evidence to meet the word count requirement.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into clear paragraphs, each with a central theme. There is a logical progression from the introduction to the reasons for migration, the consequences, and the conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'First', 'Also', 'However', and 'As a result' are used to link ideas. While the structure is sound, the brevity of the response limits the complexity of the flow. The paragraphing is appropriate, and the overall arrangement is coherent, though the transitions could be more sophisticated to improve the flow between sentences.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task but remains somewhat basic. Phrases like 'different reasons', 'good job', and 'better lifestyle' are functional but lack the precision and variety expected at higher levels. There is an attempt to use topic-specific vocabulary such as 'agriculture' and 'overcrowded', but the range is limited. To improve, you should incorporate more academic collocations and synonyms to avoid repetition and demonstrate a wider lexical range.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are some grammatical errors, such as 'the population of villages and countryside is becoming lower' (should be 'decreasing') and 'there are less workers' (should be 'fewer workers'). Punctuation is generally correct, and the errors present do not impede communication. To achieve a higher score, you should aim for more varied complex sentence structures and ensure greater accuracy in subject-verb agreement and quantifier usage.

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

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