Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-09-21
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)
The rural population is on continuous decline due to trend of more people migrating from rural to urban areas. It is a positive trend because people have more oppurtunities of working in cities and more facilities of living will be available in cities.
One of the reasons of more people making a move from countryside areas to bigger cities is to have a better employment oppurturnities and education. Similarly, the education institutes in the cities are far better than in rural areas, so when people have good education they will eventually get better and wider employment oppurtunities. For example, my cousin Alina used to live in the countryside of california, where she could'nt get her dream education, so she decided to make a move to developed side of the city where she managed to complete her university and secured a highly paid jon in a reputed firm.
Other advantage of migrating from rural areas to cities is to have a better standard of living and more available facilities. In cities, people have better transportation, food, healthcare and houses making their lives more reliable and efficient. For example, i got a posting of my job in rural area of Karachi, where i have to face many problems regarding the available facilities from food, transport, hygiene level, mobile and internet service to many more, that eventually ended up reducing my overall work performance so, i decided to move to a city area for better performance and working.
In conclusion, population reduction in rural areas is concerning however, living in bigger cities have more advantages than living in rural areas.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses the prompt by clearly taking a position that the rural-to-urban migration is a positive development. Key ideas regarding employment opportunities, education, and living standards are introduced. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited and relies heavily on personal anecdote, such as the example of the cousin Alina and the writer's personal job posting in Karachi. While the prompt allows for relevant examples from one's own experience, the arguments could have been extended further with more generalised societal perspectives to achieve a higher level of task response. The position is maintained throughout the essay and the conclusion directly addresses the prompt, fitting comfortably into the Band 6 descriptors.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, including an introduction, two body paragraphs supporting the main viewpoint, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'Similarly', 'For example', and 'In conclusion' are used to connect ideas, though some transitions feel a bit mechanical. Referencing is generally clear, but the logical progression within the second body paragraph stumbles slightly due to sentence construction and run-on structures. Overall, the organizational structure meets the requirements for a Band 6, providing a clear overall progression despite some minor flaws in cohesive management.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common lexical items such as 'migration', 'standard of living', and 'reputed firm'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, including 'oppurtunities' instead of 'opportunities', 'oppurturnities', 'can't' rendered as 'could'nt', and 'jon' instead of 'job'. Additionally, lowercase letters are used for proper nouns like 'california' and 'i'. These vocabulary and spelling inaccuracies restrict the lexical score to Band 5.5, as they occasionally draw the reader's attention and require effort to parse.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some attempt at variety. For instance, conditional or relative structures appear, such as 'so when people have good education they will eventually get better...'. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with subject-verb agreement, article use, and punctuation. Examples include 'due to trend of more people' (missing article), 'facilities of living will be available' (awkward phrasing), and run-on sentences like the one detailing the writer's posting in Karachi. These errors persist throughout the text, though they rarely impede overall communication, placing the response firmly at Band 5.5.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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