Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-11-11

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Some people spend most of their lives living close to where they were born.

What might be the reasons for this?

What are the advantages and disadvantages?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

 

Student answer (Band 6.0)

In a world where most people are constantly moving aways from their home towns to chase different opportunities, some people spend a lot of their lives living close to where they were born.

I think the major reason why people do this is moving to distant places involves starting over and most people are afraid of that. Joining a new community and starting to make new friends can be very difficult for some people. Living close to where you were born means carrying on with life from childhood to adulthood in a very familiar environment.

The greatest advantage is that of familiarity. After spending a lot of time in one time, you will eventually know every corner of time. You are also familiar with a lot of people including teachers from kindergaten, all the way to high school or college teachers. Also, one particularly important thing is family. Living in a town you grew up in often means you live close to your parents and other family members. To some people, this is very important. As people age, they begin to require a lot of assistance to do a lot of things such as carrying heavy goods. Living close to your parents will make it easier to visit them very often or even live with them at their house, in which you grew up.

On the other hand, spending most of your life in your hometown can limit your growth. This is usually the case in small towns where there opportunities are limited. For instance, small towns usually have smaller industries due to lower populations. This can lessen chances of employment. Some people may be forced to get any available employment including jobs that they may not like.

In conclusion, spending most of your life in your hometown can be ideal but can come at an expensive cost of missing out on better work opportunities.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address all parts of the prompt: you give a reason for staying near one’s birthplace, explain advantages such as familiarity and family support, and discuss the disadvantage of fewer employment options. Your position is clear in the conclusion, which recognises both the appeal and the cost of remaining in a hometown. The family-support point is developed with a practical example about helping ageing parents, while the reason of fear of starting over and the employment disadvantage receive less explanation. For fuller development, explain why people may prefer familiar social networks and illustrate how limited local industries affect career choices. The response meets the task’s length requirement.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, a paragraph explaining the reason, separate paragraphs for advantages and disadvantages, and a conclusion. The progression from familiarity to family support is understandable, and signposts such as “On the other hand” and “In conclusion” help readers follow the argument. However, some links are mechanical, and the advantage paragraph moves from familiarity to teachers and then family without clearly showing how these examples relate. The repeated use of “Living close” and “Also” also makes the flow less flexible. Group related points more deliberately and use clearer references—for example, explain that familiarity includes both established relationships and practical family support.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including relevant phrases such as “starting over,” “familiar environment,” “employment,” and “work opportunities.” There are also attempts at more specific language, such as “limited industries” and “available employment.” However, several word-choice and spelling problems reduce precision: “in one time” and “every corner of time” appear to mean “in one town” and “every corner of the town,” while “kindergaten” is misspelled. Phrases such as “a lot of time,” “a lot of people,” and “a lot of things” are repeated and general. Use more precise terms for local services, social connections, and career prospects, and check spelling carefully.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, and most ideas remain understandable. For example, the sentence beginning “As people age” gives a clear reason-and-result relationship, while “Living in a town you grew up in often means…” shows an attempt at a more complex structure. Some grammatical errors remain. In “moving to distant places involves starting over and most people are afraid of that,” the two independent clauses need clearer punctuation or a conjunction. “Where there opportunities are limited” is missing “are” after “there,” and “in which you grew up” has an unclear reference to the house. Review clause boundaries, missing verbs, and pronoun references, while continuing to use varied sentence structures.

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

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