Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-08-26

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)

According to the scenario, the people in many countries are moving towards the urban areas by leaving the rural places and as a result the population in the countryside is decreasing. In my opinion, this is a negative development. As the rural places are very neat and clean as compared to the urban places so as the people are heading to the urban areas, the number of diseases among the populations of different countries has also been increased. Moreover, in the rural areas, there is no smoke, no noise, no industrial waste and the environment remains very hygienic due to all the above mentioned reasons but still the people are moving towards the urban areas just for the modern life and this leads to continuous decrease in the amount of people in the rural areas. This is very false development as the rural areas are very perfect to live a healthy life so people are missing the chance to live a better peaceful life in the rural areas. For example, in the villages, people often go for a morning walk which keeps them healthy and fit throughout the life. When people walk and breath under the trees in the morning on the countryside, their lungs remain healthy for the long period of their life. In addition, in the backward areas people enjoy the natural vegetables, fruits and dairy products due to which they live more years as compared to the persons who are living in the urban areas. Adding more in my description, the persons who are living or going towards the urban areas face different kind of challenges in their daily life activities. For instance, the sounds of the horns in the cities disturb the mental health of the people and they become mentally ill due to the daily noise near to their homes. The smoke emitting from the vehicles, damage the lungs of the people who are living in the urban areas and this leads to their early death. In addition to all the above described problems, there is another important challenge for the people of urban areas which is the lack of natural vegetables, and other food items.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear position that rural-to-urban migration is a negative development. However, the development of ideas is somewhat repetitive, focusing almost exclusively on health and environmental factors while ignoring other significant aspects of the topic, such as economic or social impacts. The argument is consistent, but the lack of paragraphing makes the progression of ideas feel dense and less structured. To improve, you should aim to explore different facets of the issue—such as the strain on urban infrastructure or the loss of agricultural labor—to provide a more comprehensive and balanced argument.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay lacks paragraph breaks, which is a significant issue for coherence. A formal essay should be divided into an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. While you use some cohesive devices like 'Moreover,' 'For example,' and 'In addition,' the flow is often mechanical. The transition between ideas is sometimes abrupt, and the lack of visual separation between your main points makes the text feel like a single, long stream of thought. Improving your paragraphing and using a wider variety of linking words would significantly enhance the logical flow of your writing.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks variety and precision. You rely heavily on basic terms like 'neat and clean,' 'very perfect,' and 'different kind of.' There are some instances of awkward phrasing, such as 'false development' and 'throughout the life.' To reach a higher band, try to incorporate more sophisticated collocations and topic-specific vocabulary related to urbanization and environmental issues. For instance, instead of 'neat and clean,' you could use 'pristine' or 'unpolluted,' and instead of 'very perfect,' you might use 'ideal' or 'conducive to.'

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede the flow. Common issues include incorrect article usage (e.g., 'the amount of people'), subject-verb agreement errors (e.g., 'the number of diseases... has also been increased'), and punctuation mistakes. While the meaning is generally clear, the frequency of these errors prevents the writing from achieving a higher score. Focus on mastering basic sentence construction and proofreading for common errors like pluralization and preposition usage to improve your accuracy.

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.