Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-09-05

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, there is a clrear trend of people moving from rural area to cities which led to decline in countryside population. I believe that it is also has negative impact on country social and economic development.

Firstly, people are moving from villages to cities because all the facilities are availabe in cities such as healthcare system and educational quality are better in urban areas. Due to rapid migration of peoples the population in cities significantly increase with the passage of time. It effect infrastructure badly because of the traffic congestion and house shortages challenges increases for the government. For example the increase in population is also cause pollution in the envirnoment.

secondly, the increase in migration to cities is also effect the culture and tradition of rural areas.furthermore the agriculture sector is mostly effected by the migration because the people leave agriculture which cause the loss of food.Agriculture is a backbone of country economic as younger people leave this to pursue higher education in cities.Due to food shortage the government import the the goods to fullfill the requirement of citizens.as the older people now alone in a village they has to do farming alone.In addition , rural communties lose their culture and tradition structurewhen people move away. school close , local business shutdown and tradtion fade because there are not enough peopleto sustain them.

In conclusion, altough the people moving to cities to get better job opportunities, the overall impact of rural depopulation is negative.government should invest more in rural developments to create the better jobs and facilities in village so that people do not feel forced to leave.

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. The ideas are relevant, covering both the strain on urban infrastructure and the decline of rural agriculture and culture. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat superficial. For instance, the point about food shortages is introduced but not fully explained in terms of its broader economic impact. While the position is consistent throughout, the essay would benefit from more detailed examples or deeper analysis to move beyond a general overview. The conclusion effectively summarizes the main points and offers a suggestion for government intervention.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, each with a clear focus. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Firstly', 'secondly', 'furthermore', and 'in conclusion', which help guide the reader. However, the use of these devices is sometimes mechanical, and there are instances where the flow is interrupted by awkward phrasing or missing punctuation, such as the lack of spacing after commas or periods. Referencing is generally clear, but the transition between ideas within paragraphs could be smoother to improve the overall progression of the argument.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express their ideas clearly. There are attempts to use topic-specific vocabulary like 'infrastructure', 'congestion', and 'depopulation'. However, there are several spelling errors ('clrear', 'availabe', 'envirnoment', 'tradtion') and word-choice inaccuracies, such as 'effect' used instead of 'affect' and 'the the' repetition. While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding the message, they indicate a limited control over more complex lexical items and spelling accuracy, which prevents a higher score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with subject-verb agreement ('the population... increase', 'older people... has to do') and article usage. Punctuation is also inconsistent, with several missing spaces after punctuation marks and run-on sentences. While the meaning remains clear, the high frequency of these errors means that the majority of sentences are not error-free. To improve, the student should focus on basic sentence construction, subject-verb agreement, and proofreading for punctuation and spacing errors.

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