Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-10-20

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 people from the countryside are migrating to cities around the world, and the number of individuals is decreasing in rural areas. Its a negative development, as it makes the cities overcrowded.

There is less living place in cities enough for its own resident. When people from countryside mpves to cities, the biggest prolem they face is accomodation. There are limited number of flats or houses in cities which makes it difficult to live and make the place overcrowded. For example, if 20 people from rural area migrates to city, they need a proper flat or a house to live in. If 10 people move to same street, this will make the street congested and noisy.

Many people move to cities to improve their way of living as there are more opportunities of work in cities than in rural areas. This is a positive development. The standard of living improves. Peope living in citeies get more help and the people of rural areas gets more wage. For example, the labour in cities is more than in countryside giving people more work opportunities.

The population on countryside is decreasing which is impacting the economy of a country. when people move to cities there are less people left behind to do work in farms. The agriculture is greatly affested as limiteed number of farmers are working in farms. Most of the time, the people migrating to cities are mostly yong people and less people are left behind to work in farms. so there is a great reduction in cops production.

in conclusion, the negative imoacts are more than positiv effects.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your position is clear: you judge the trend to be negative, mainly because of overcrowding in cities and reduced agricultural production. You also acknowledge a counterpoint—that urban migration can improve employment opportunities and living standards—which helps address the question in a balanced way. The examples about housing and farm labour are relevant, but some claims are not fully explained: for instance, the example of people moving to one street does not clearly show how migration affects the city overall. The paragraph on employment also ends without explaining why this benefit is outweighed by the disadvantages. Develop each reason with a clearer cause-and-effect explanation and make the comparison between positive and negative effects more explicit.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The response has a recognisable structure, with separate paragraphs for urban overcrowding, employment, effects on agriculture, and a conclusion. This gives the reader a basic route through your ideas. However, progression between points is not always clear: the employment paragraph calls migration positive, but the next paragraph returns to the negative position without a transition explaining how the argument is developing. Linking phrases such as “However, this benefit is outweighed by…” would clarify the relationship. Some connections within paragraphs are also repetitive, particularly the repeated references to people moving to cities. Use clearer topic sentences, connect examples directly to the point they support, and make the conclusion restate the main reasons rather than only giving a brief judgement.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “overcrowded,” “opportunities of work,” “standard of living,” and “agriculture.” However, the range is limited and several word choices or collocations are inaccurate, which sometimes makes the meaning less natural. For example, “living place” would be better expressed as “housing” or “accommodation,” and “the labour in cities is more” does not clearly convey that urban areas offer more jobs. Spelling errors such as “prolem,” “accomodation,” “affested,” and “cops” are noticeable and can distract the reader. Build a more precise vocabulary for migration, employment, housing pressure, and agricultural output, and proofread carefully for spelling.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentences, including a reason clause in “as it makes the cities overcrowded” and a relative clause in “flats or houses in cities which makes it difficult to live.” The overall meaning is generally recoverable, but errors in sentence structure, agreement, articles, and verb forms occur often enough to affect clarity. For example, “There are limited number” needs an article or plural form, while “people … migrates” and “the people of rural areas gets” have subject–verb agreement errors. Some sentences are awkwardly joined, and capitalisation after full stops is inconsistent. Practise checking each sentence for a clear subject and verb, correct agreement, and complete punctuation; then vary sentence patterns while keeping them accurate.

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