Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-10-04

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 recent times, people are leaving their small towns, or rural areas, where they grew up, spent their childhood, and teenage years, in order to lead a safer, easier, and comfortable life.

City life is busy, and crowded. But the reason for this spontaneous environment of city life is definitely the services, and amenities it provides. For example, if one person is in the mood for watching a movie late at night, or grabbing a late night dinner with someone special, a city can provide with the proper and adequate resources to fulfill that wish. Also, cities have more job oppurtunities as well as more business oppurtunities. So, citites can provide one with more income oppurtunites than a rural countryside town can.

But, it comes with a cost. Where there's more people, there's more oppurtunites, as well as numerous problems. One of the biggest downside is unplanned, and negative development of cities due to population overload. Dhaka city can be a prime example for such problem. The city is literally suffering from the large population. Due to its small area, this large population is extremely difficult to accommodate. As a result, highrise buildings with zero safety measures are given permit each year and being constructed. The large amount of people use more transportation, which is a leading cause for carbon pollution, and air quality degradation in the city. The environment is slowly deteriorating due to deforestation for the purpose of housing, and construction. Lakes, ponds, and other waterbodies are also being filled up for this purpose. In short, the whole city is losing its natural environment due to unplanned development, caused by population overload. This large amount of people are also being deprived of basic rights services such as law and order, safety and security, medical services, and numerous other governmental services in need.

Due to large amount of population migration from the rural areas towards the city, the rural areas are being neglected. Most of these rural areas are not getting the services required for the people that still reside there. This is basically making the lives people residing in the rural area even more difficult day by day.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the task partially by identifying both the perceived benefits of city life and the negative consequences of rural-to-urban migration, such as environmental degradation and the neglect of rural areas. However, your position on whether this is an overall positive or negative development remains somewhat unclear, as you discuss both advantages and drawbacks without fully resolving the central question. Furthermore, several ideas are limited and under-developed. For instance, the point about late-night dining and movie-watching is superficial and lacks the depth required to fully support the argument. To reach a higher band, you need to state a clear, consistent position throughout the essay and extend your main ideas with more substantial explanations and relevant examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

There is a basic logical organisation to your writing, moving from the attractions of urban living to the negative consequences in cities and finally the impact on rural areas. However, the overall progression is sometimes disjointed, and paragraphs such as the second one are somewhat fragmented. Cohesive devices are used, but they tend to be repetitive and mechanical, relying heavily on transitional phrases like 'Also,' 'So,' and 'In short.' Additionally, paragraphing could be managed more effectively to separate distinct ideas, as the third paragraph attempts to cover too many disparate issues ranging from Dhaka's population density to environmental pollution and basic rights without clear internal signposting. Improving the logical flow between sentences and varying your cohesive devices would help elevate your score in this area.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is minimally adequate for the task, allowing you to communicate your general points, but the range is limited and contains noticeable errors in word choice and spelling. For example, you misspelled 'oppurtunities' multiple times and used phrases like 'safer, easier, and comfortable life' rather than maintaining parallel grammatical forms. You attempt some less common vocabulary, such as 'spontaneous environment,' 'adequate resources,' and 'differentiating,' but these attempts sometimes result in unnatural collocations. To achieve a higher band, you should aim to use a wider range of precise vocabulary and less common lexical items with greater control over style, spelling, and word formation.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The essay demonstrates a limited range of sentence structures, relying mostly on simple and straightforward compound sentences. When you attempt more complex structures, they are often faulty or punctuated incorrectly, such as in the sentence starting with 'Where there's more people, there's more oppurtunites.' There are frequent errors in grammar, including subject-verb agreement issues like 'highrise buildings... are given permit each year and being constructed,' article misuse, and awkward prepositional phrases. These errors occasionally cause difficulty for the reader. To improve, you should incorporate a wider variety of complex grammatical structures and pay closer attention to basic accuracy, particularly regarding pluralization, verb forms, and punctuation.

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