Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-09-08

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)

Nowadays, many individuals move from rural area to urban area in order to achieve all the facilities. From this trend population of rural areas are declining day by day and cities are becoming overcrowded. I personally believe that this trend has negative development.

The trend of moving the cities means many individuals migrate from the countryside to the urbanized area. In which they get more facilities and work opportunities which will lead to growth. For instance, many businesses, industries and good educational institutes are situated in big cities. Residents of small villages migrate to the cities to complete higher education and after higher education they often complete their internship in that city and then they get their field job also in urban area. Which forces them to live in that area because they get more opportunities with good pay off.

Despite of having many benefits, it has lot of drawbacks which will lead to negative development of the countryside. Numerous problem has raised due to immigration of population from the villages to the urban areas such as declined population in country side and on the other hand over population in cities which has lead to traffic , pollution and congestion. Cost of living also got increased. There are high chances of diseases spread because peoples live in congested area. Agriculture activities are reducing because individuals moved into cities, As a result of that food production got declined and people have lost nature and some traditional practices.

To conclude with, although urbanization offer many economic and technical benefits but it has many side effects also. Balance is needed because population is increasing day by day in cities and it has negative impact on both the urban and rural parts of the country.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by identifying the trend as a negative development. While the position is clear, the development of ideas is somewhat uneven. The second paragraph provides a reasonable explanation for why people move, but the third paragraph, which discusses the drawbacks, contains several points that are listed rather than fully extended. For instance, the mention of 'food production' and 'traditional practices' is brief and could have been supported with more specific examples or logical consequences to reach a higher band. Overall, the task is addressed, but the depth of analysis is limited.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, each with a clear focus. There is a basic attempt at using cohesive devices, such as 'For instance,' 'Despite of,' and 'To conclude with.' However, the use of these devices is sometimes mechanical or slightly inaccurate (e.g., 'Despite of' should be 'Despite' or 'In spite of'). Referencing is generally clear, though some transitions between sentences feel abrupt. The progression of ideas is logical, but the flow could be improved with more sophisticated linking words to connect the arguments more fluidly.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to convey their meaning clearly. There are some attempts at using topic-specific vocabulary like 'urbanized,' 'immigration,' 'congestion,' and 'agriculture activities.' However, there are instances of awkward word choice and collocation errors, such as 'achieve all the facilities,' 'pay off' (instead of 'pay'), and 'peoples' (instead of 'people'). The range is sufficient for the task, but the lack of precision and occasional errors in word formation prevent it from reaching a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('Numerous problem has raised,' 'urbanization offer') and incorrect preposition usage. Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with comma usage and sentence fragments (e.g., 'Which forces them...'). While these errors do not typically impede communication, they are frequent enough to demonstrate a lack of control over complex structures, which is a characteristic of the 6.0 band.

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