Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-09-02

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 today's era, most of the populace around the globe has been migrating from the rural areas to urban cities where the population in the countryside is drastically reduced. According to my perspective, this is neither positive nor negative aspects in the field of development.

First of all, talking about its positive aspects, people from rural areas will have variety of facilities for sustaining their lives smoothly such as: provision of quality health services, quality education, better transportation and so on. Ultimately, their quality of life will drastically improve due to the modernization of the city areas. People will have better employment opportunities as well so that they can fulfill their family needs.

However, on the other side, there are many other negative perspectives regarding the movement of citizens from rural to developed areas. One of the mainstream negative aspects is that, there will be population growth which can impact the global environment. There will be different air, land, sound and noise pollution as well which will directly harm globally. Unnecessary usage of natural resources will be depleted as there will be more utilization of these resources. This will also negatively favors climate change if the naturally available resources are not properly used. On the other hand, there will be more green house gases emission that indirectly destroy human mankind.

From my own knowledge, recently Nepal has gone through a devastating flood. People from rural side has started to migrate to cities for their livelihood whoever the people survived. This has directly impacted the city areas regarding population management to the authority makers or governments. Therefore, timely management is mandatory to well-balanced the population in both rural and urban areas.

In conclusion, rural community moving to the cities both has their own aspects.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both positive and negative aspects of rural-to-urban migration. However, the position is somewhat neutral, stating it is 'neither positive nor negative,' which makes it difficult to fully develop a clear, consistent argument throughout the essay. While the ideas regarding quality of life and environmental impact are relevant, they are somewhat generalised. The example regarding Nepal is a good attempt to ground the argument in reality, but the conclusion is underdeveloped, failing to provide a final synthesis or a strong summary of the writer's stance. To reach a higher band, ensure the position is clearly stated and maintained, with more nuanced development of the supporting points.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organised into clear paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the progression of ideas. Cohesive devices such as 'First of all,' 'However,' and 'On the other hand' are used to link sentences and paragraphs. However, some transitions feel a bit mechanical or repetitive. For instance, the transition 'On the other hand' is used twice in the same paragraph, which affects the flow. Additionally, the referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the final sentence, 'rural community moving to the cities both has their own aspects,' which lacks grammatical cohesion and logical clarity. Improving the variety of linking words and ensuring each paragraph has a clear topic sentence would enhance the overall structure.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing the writer to convey their meaning clearly. There are some attempts at less common vocabulary, such as 'populace,' 'modernization,' and 'depleted.' However, there are also instances of awkward word choice and collocation errors, such as 'negatively favors climate change' and 'destroy human mankind.' These errors do not impede communication, but they do limit the precision of the argument. To improve, focus on learning collocations (words that naturally go together) and using more precise terminology for environmental and social issues rather than relying on general descriptors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the writer attempts complex sentences, there are frequent grammatical errors, such as 'whoever the people survived' and 'well-balanced the population,' which interfere with the flow. Punctuation is generally acceptable, but there are minor issues with article usage and subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'rural community moving... has their own aspects'). The majority of sentences are understandable, but the frequency of errors prevents the essay from reaching a higher band. Focusing on subject-verb agreement and the correct use of relative clauses would significantly improve the grammatical accuracy of the writing.

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

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