Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-10-27

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)

Now a days,several individuals are moving from rural areas to cities. As a result, the population of the countrysites become decreased .Three are several reasons for this trend, such as better education,trasport system, job opportunities, healthcare departments in cities.I strongly believe that it may may case numerous problems for botth rural and urban areas

On the one side, cities has numerous advantages of living in the urban areas. Firstly, they provide a lot of job opportunities, which help individuals to earn the souce of income and inhence their living standards. secondly cities have batter schools colleges and universities.Moreover, cities also have better healthcare departments. For example, Many individuals in Pakistan move to large cities such as Lahore to find jobs and continue their education.

On the other hand, the movement of people from villages to cities has several disadvantages. When too many people move to cities, it can cause traffic congestion, overcrowding and a shortage of houses. As a result, the cost of living may increase. Furthermore, villages may lose their young and hardworking people. This can reduce agricultural production because fewer people are available to work on farms. For example, some villages may face a shortage of workers when young people move to cities for better opportunities.

In conclusion, although moving to cities can provide better jobs, education and healthcare, I believe it is a negative development overall. Governments should improve facilities in rural areas so that people can enjoy a better life without leaving their villages.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You give a clear overall view in the conclusion, stating that rural-to-urban migration is negative, and you include relevant effects on both cities and villages. The examples of congestion, housing shortages and reduced farm labour support your position. However, the opening says the trend may cause problems for both areas, while the first body paragraph mainly lists the benefits of city life; the relationship between these points and your final judgement could be explained more clearly. Some ideas, especially the effects on rural communities, are relevant but briefly developed. The response is also two words below the required minimum. To strengthen the response, explain each main effect with a fuller cause-and-result link and make your position consistent from the introduction onward.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, two contrasting body paragraphs and a conclusion. The progression from city advantages to the disadvantages of migration is easy to follow, and signposts such as “On the other hand,” “Furthermore” and “In conclusion” help guide the reader. However, the first body paragraph focuses on why cities attract people rather than directly explaining whether the resulting population shift is positive or negative. The opening also contains an unclear transition between the reasons for migration and your position. Some linking is mechanical, particularly the repeated use of “Moreover” and “Furthermore.” Connect each paragraph more explicitly to your overall argument and use referencing or varied transitions to make relationships between ideas clearer.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “job opportunities,” “traffic congestion,” “overcrowding,” “agricultural production” and “cost of living.” These choices make the main points understandable, and there is some variety in how you describe the effects of migration. However, noticeable spelling and word-choice errors reduce precision, including “countrysites,” “trasport,” “souce” and “inhence.” Phrases such as “healthcare departments” and “earn the source of income” are also not natural in this context. The range is adequate for expressing your ideas, but greater accuracy with common collocations and careful proofreading would make the argument clearer and more fluent. Practise topic-specific phrases such as “access to healthcare” and “earn a living.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and more complex sentences, including a relative clause in “job opportunities, which help individuals…” and a conditional structure in “When too many people move to cities, it can cause…”. Most of the later sentences communicate their meaning clearly. However, errors in the opening show that control is not consistent: “the population … become decreased” has an incorrect verb form, and “cities has” has a subject–verb agreement error. There are also problems with sentence boundaries and punctuation, such as the run-on opening and missing spaces after commas. Use a wider range of sentence patterns while checking agreement, verb forms and punctuation; for example, write “the rural population is decreasing” and separate the introduction’s ideas into complete sentences.

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