Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-09-23

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 population on the countryside is decreasing due to rural people moving to cities around many countires in the world.

The reason why rural people are migrating to cities is all due to the facilites and opportunities available in cities comapred to countryside land.

Amenities such as better education and infrastructres , Hospitals and outings like parks and resturants, job opportunities and apartments or a house of of own has been a list of why the people keep prefering to move to cities.

This could be seen as both positive and negative effect.

Positive as it's mostly the youngsters who are moving to cities to look for opportunities and chasing their dreams, getting a well paid job which helps them and the elders back at countryside to retire from heavy farm work or hard labor.

The negative and disadvantageous part about this migration is youngsters tend to get stuck in the loop of the city life that it barely makes them want to return or the city responsibilities ties them to city .

For Example , let's look at it this way someone from one country an economically drawback country gets an opportunity to move to an economically well powered country for instance U.S the opportunity in the U.S would tempt the person to stay back hence why they would choose to settle down at a place full of opportunities and their families would grow at the ssame place hence leading to not returning to their prior place or home.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The student addresses all parts of the prompt by identifying the migration from rural areas to cities and discussing both the positive and negative aspects of this development. A clear position is maintained throughout the response. Ideas are introduced regarding amenities, employment, and the sociological impacts on families, such as youngsters moving for opportunities versus getting trapped in urban cycles. However, the development of these ideas remains somewhat superficial and general, particularly in the later part of the essay where the example regarding international migration slightly strays from domestic rural-to-urban shifts. Despite these limitations in depth and local relevance, the prompt is sufficiently addressed to satisfy the requirements for a Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a recognisable introduction, body paragraphs addressing both positive and negative aspects, and a concluding example. However, paragraphing is poorly handled, with several very short, single-sentence paragraphs that disrupt the natural flow and logical progression of ideas. Cohesive devices are occasionally mechanical or repetitive, such as 'The reason why' and 'The negative and disadvantageous part about this migration is'. Referencing is generally clear, but transitional links between sentences lack sophistication. Overall, the structural formatting limitations and mechanical cohesion place this response firmly in the Band 5.5 to 6.0 range, achieving a solid 5.5.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items and topic-specific terms such as 'migrating', 'amenities', 'infrastructures', and 'economically drawback country'. However, there are notable spelling errors ('countires', 'comapred', 'resturants', 'ssame') and awkward word choices or collocations ('economically well powered country', 'house of of own'). These errors occasionally detract from the reading experience, though they rarely impede overall communication. The lexical control reflects the descriptors for Band 6.0, where an adequate vocabulary is deployed with some inaccuracies in spelling and word formation.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including relative clauses and conditional-like statements. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are run-on sentences and punctuation slips, such as in the third sentence: 'Amenities such as better education and infrastructres , Hospitals and outings like parks and resturants, job opportunities and apartments or a house of of own has been a list of why the people keep prefering to move to cities,' which features subject-verb agreement errors ('has been') and incorrect spacing before commas. Other errors include missing articles and awkward phrasing. These frequent errors in complex structures mean the text fits best at Band 5.0.

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

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