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)

Nowadays, people from countryside are migrating to cities for better life and as a result countryside are facing less populations. I consider this as negative development due to towns are becoming over populated which is causing adverse negative consquences in every walks of life.

To begin with majority of rural individuals are now moving to city. One primary reason behind this is they want to live a better life with possible solutions of every need of life. If they move to city it will become beneficial for them it is what they believe. Another contributing factor is that every city provides better education and healthcare. When people from countryside see that if they live on a city it will aids them to live a life without anykind of problems and easy transportation systems or lots of benefits they try every possible thing to move in a big city. For example, in China rural people migrate to Beijing to live a better life with proper healthcare and jobs.

Moving from rural areas, citizens tend to depend more on city for fulfilling their daily necessities. Not only does the expolration of new city make people eager to live in city for their whoe life, but also it may lead to a neglectful approach to city and as well as countryside land. Instead of living in villge if all people start living in town there will be less people to do agriculture, field will become unworthy of doing farming. The neglection of village may cause a disaster to individual who lives in city because theeir dependency on farmers are the most important thing to survive. For instance, in Japan sticky rice which is grown by farmers of Japan and the government always buy this rice with extra prices because if not the farmer will not do farming and the public will face disaster of food.

To conclude, though the demand of living in modern land is growing, it must be not the reason that all people from village move to big ciities and abandon countryside areas.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task, clearly taking a position that the rural-to-urban migration is a negative development. Relevant ideas are presented, such as the strain on city infrastructure and the potential abandonment of agriculture, exemplified by the mention of rice farming in Japan. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others. For instance, the discussion on why people migrate relies on general statements like 'better education and healthcare' without deep extension. While the position is clear throughout, the support for certain arguments remains somewhat limited and could be further elaborated with more precise examples to reach a higher level.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear stance established in the introduction and reinforced in the conclusion. Paragraphing is used to separate distinct points, such as the push-pull factors of migration in the second body paragraph and the consequences for agriculture in the third. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. Transition phrases and referencing are not always smooth, seen in expressions like 'It is what they believe' or 'the expolration of new city', which make the logical progression feel slightly disjointed at times. Improving the integration of cohesive devices and ensuring clear referencing would enhance the flow of ideas.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The writer demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'infrastructure', 'neglection', and 'dependency', though these are accompanied by some inaccuracy. There are noticeable word choice and spelling errors throughout the text, such as 'expolration' instead of 'exploration', 'whoe' for 'whole', and 'theeeir' for 'their'. Collocations are also occasionally strained, for instance, writing 'adverse negative consquences in every walks of life' instead of 'every walk of life'. These errors do not impede overall communication, but they restrict the lexical score because precision and control are inconsistent.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an attempt to use relative clauses and conditional structures. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation, particularly concerning articles, prepositions, and subject-verb agreement. Examples include 'people from countryside are facing less populations', 'live on a city', and 'it must be not the reason'. While these errors rarely impede communication and the basic meaning remains understandable, the persistence of structural inaccuracies prevents the writing from achieving a higher level of grammatical control.

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