Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-10-26

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 most of the countries around the world, rural people are changing their place and moved to cities and population is decreasing in the countryside. I thought it is a positive move and I will give the reasons to support my answer.

First thing is that eduaction in the cities is very good, there are many chances for the students to get eduaction atleast at university level. In the countryside, many rare chances of education the reason behind it is that government ignore villages and do work in cities. So people educate their children easily in cities and became a professional man. In this way village people easily good-bye to ignorance.

Second reason is that, job opportunities in the villages is almost 0%, if a student study in a city and after his graduation he removed towards countryside so there is 0 benefit of his study. People do well moving towards cities. In city their children easily get higher education and also do a job in a well maintained company. People find job easily in the cities and do work for themself and also for their country.

The third point is that people are well known about machinery in cities, in the villages people harvest crops by old methods and do not use any machinery and chemicals which incrase their production. So in the cities, government educate farmers and teache them how to use machinery and chemicals. So because of science farmers do well to increase their production.

To sum up the whole coversation, it is a positive development moving towards cities.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your position is clear from the introduction and conclusion: you consider rural-to-urban migration positive. You give three relevant reasons—access to education, employment, and improved farming methods—and explain each with examples, such as students gaining university education and farmers learning to use machinery. This addresses the question, but the reasons are not equally convincing or fully developed. In particular, the farming point shifts from people moving to cities to the government educating farmers, without explaining how migration itself produces that benefit. Some claims, such as village job opportunities being “almost 0%,” are also broad and would be stronger with qualification or a specific example. Develop the links between each reason and your overall position more clearly.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, three body paragraphs organised around separate reasons, and a concluding summary. Sequencing phrases such as “First thing,” “Second reason,” and “The third point” help readers follow the argument. However, these transitions are somewhat mechanical, and some connections between ideas are unclear. For example, the farming paragraph moves from migration to government training without showing the relationship between them. The sentence beginning “In the countryside, many rare chances of education” also makes the progression difficult to follow. Use clearer topic sentences and link each example explicitly to the paragraph’s main claim. More varied transitions and clearer references would make the overall progression smoother.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate your main ideas, including “job opportunities,” “higher education,” “graduation,” “machinery,” and “production.” However, the range is limited and several word choices or collocations are inaccurate, sometimes making the meaning less clear. For instance, “changing their place” is not a natural way to describe migration, and “good-bye to ignorance” is an awkward expression in this context. There are also spelling errors such as “eduaction,” “incrase,” and “teache.” Aim for more precise, natural phrases and check spelling carefully. Repeated use of “cities,” “people,” and “do” also limits variety; suitable alternatives can make the argument more fluent.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and longer sentence forms, and the reader can generally understand your main points. However, there are recurring errors in verb forms, agreement, articles, and sentence construction. For example, “rural people are changing their place and moved to cities” combines incompatible verb forms, while “job opportunities in the villages is” has a subject–verb agreement error. The sentence “if a student study in a city and after his graduation he removed towards countryside” also contains several grammatical problems that obscure the intended meaning. Some sentences join ideas without clear punctuation or structure. Practise accurate past and present forms, agreement, and conditional sentences, then proofread each sentence for a clear subject and verb.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.