Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-09-24
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 nations around the globe, an increasing number of individuals are leaving rural areas and migrating towards cities. Although, this strategy can provide individuals with better opportunities.I believe that it is negative development because this can cause worker shortages and excessive pressure on the resources of urban cities.
On the one hand, people from rural areas move towards cities because they are looking for better job opportunities. People in rural areas can't find more chances whether it is for job or businesses.,so that's why they move to cities. However, this can have downsides on both cities and rural areas .
One of the major disadvantage is that rural areas suffer from shortage of workers, agriculture and rural business depend heavily on local residents. So when massive number of young residents move to cities, they, there are not enough people to work on farms and run local businesses. This can have detrimental effect on local economy. For instance, in many Asian nations, young individuals move to cities for employment. As a result, agriculture is leading to, sorry, contributing contributing least to GDP of a nation, nations. Furthermore, excessive migration to cities can put pressure on urban resources. A rapid increase can lead to new houses, traffic congestion, hospitals and public transport. If government cannot expand the services quickly, the quality of life for urban residents may decline. More population can lead to competitive job market and low incomes.
In conclusion, although urban migration can improve individual opportunities, I believe that decline of rural population creates significant economic and social problems
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 all parts of the task by taking a clear negative position on the trend of rural migration to cities. The main ideas are relevant and supported, such as worker shortages in rural areas and excessive pressure on urban resources. For instance, the student notes that agriculture contributes less to the GDP when young individuals move to cities. However, some ideas are slightly under-developed or repetitive, and there is a tendency to over-generalise without sufficient depth in supporting examples. Despite these minor limitations, the position is maintained throughout, fitting comfortably into the Band 6 descriptor.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The essay has a coherent overall arrangement with a recognisable introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to separate main ideas. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty and mechanical. For example, there are punctuation errors that disrupt the flow of sentences, such as 'businesses.,so that's why' and fragment sentences. Referencing is occasionally unclear, and transitional phrases are sometimes overused or awkwardly linked. Overall logical progression is present, but the mechanics of cohesion need refinement to reach a higher band.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'detrimental effect', 'excessive migration', and 'competitive job market'. However, there are noticeable inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'urban cities' (redundancy) and the awkward phrasing 'leading to new houses, traffic congestion' where the verb does not fit the negative noun phrases. Spelling and self-correction attempts, such as 'contributing contributing', show limited lexical precision. Communication is not impeded, but vocabulary control remains at a modest level.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
The essay displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including conditional structures like 'If government cannot expand the services quickly'. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation, particularly missing articles ('If government', 'lead to new houses'), faulty punctuation ('businesses.,so that'), and awkward phrasing ('agriculture is leading to, sorry, contributing contributing least'). While these errors do not heavily impede communication, they persist throughout the text, preventing the response from reaching Band 6.5 or 7.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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