Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-09-12

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)

better education, facilities, infrastructure, oppotunities, salary.

farming, selling, dev of a person, govt to give more benefits to stay in the countryside.

In many countries, rural population are leaving countryside to move to the cities. I believe that it has positive development because there are better opportunities, facilities, and opportunities in the city.

The level of education provided in cities varies from that of rural areas. In cities, students are practically taught the curriculum because of the avaibility of labs and workshops. Students as well as graduates have more oppotunities to be employed and earn a decent amount of salary as compared to the villages. There are many companies as well as various career options in the city area for employability. Similarly, more facilities are provided in the cities such as water, electricity, transportation, etc. A positive point is that these facilities are availabloe 24/7. People prefer to live in areas where their necessities are fulfilled so they choose cities.

In my opinion, being in the rural area limits a person's development as a whole. There are limited facilities due to drought or lack of network. One cannot live comfortablly in the rural area. At the same time, there are very few career opportunities such as farming, teacher, etc. This may lead to low income and low economic phase of a country. To solve this, government should provide education in vast fields

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear position that urban migration is a positive development due to better education, facilities, and career opportunities. However, the task achievement is hindered significantly by two factors. First, the student included rough note-taking at the very beginning of the response, which detracts from the formal essay format. Second and crucially, the text contains only 232 words, failing to meet the minimum requirement of 250 words. Because the word count requirement is not met, the development of ideas remains somewhat truncated, particularly in the conclusion which cuts off abruptly ("government should provide education in vast fields"). This places the response firmly at Band 5.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a basic overall organisation with an introduction, body paragraphs discussing education and facilities, and an attempt at a concluding remark. However, paragraphing is compromised by the inclusion of isolated note fragments at the top of the text. Cohesive devices are somewhat simple and repetitive, with over-reliance on basic connectors and transitions. Referencing is generally clear, but the logical progression of ideas is disrupted by the abrupt ending of the essay where the final sentence trails off without completion. Overall, the structure shows some organisation but lacks clear overall progression and polished cohesion, aligning with Band 5.5 descriptors.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating topic-related terms such as "curriculum", "employment", "necessities", and "career options". However, there are notable spelling errors throughout the text, including "oppotunities" (opportunities), "avaibility" (availability), "availabloe" (available), and "comfortablly" (comfortably). The range of vocabulary is somewhat limited and repetitive, with words like "opportunities" and "facilities" recurring frequently. While the meaning is generally clear despite the lexical slips and spelling inaccuracies, the vocabulary control corresponds to a Band 5.5 level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as "People prefer to live in areas where their necessities are fulfilled so they choose cities." There are several grammatical errors and awkward phrasings, including subject-verb agreement issues ("rural population are leaving") and lexical-grammatical mismatches ("low economic phase of a country"). Punctuation and sentence boundaries are generally maintained, but the incomplete final sentence indicates a lack of control over extended complex structures. Because errors are frequent enough to cause some distraction without completely impeding communication, a score of 5.0 is appropriate.

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