Band 7.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-07-24

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 7.0)

In this contemporary era, several individuals choose to live nearby their birthplace where they grew up, this preference is mainly influenced by strong family ties and familiarity with local environment. Although remaining in native place may have several benefits like wise, emotional support and sense of belonging, there are significant challenges to one's life such as, limited career opportunities and exposure. This essay will elucidate the reason and the potential drawbacks further in subsequent paragraphs.

To commence with, many people tend to prefer to live nearby their birthplace because of the familiarity of the environment and neighbourhood. To expound, friends and relatives can provide emotional support, financial encouragement and help during difficult time. Additionally, senso of belonging such as place, people, neighbourhood, culture, food and language provide safety and security to one's life. To exemplify, many adults prefer to stay close to their relatives and local hood to provide care to their parents and grandparents or continue to working in their family business. Hence, strong family ties and familiarity are key factors why many people remain close to their birthplace.

On the contrary, limit close to one's birthplace may limit their career opportunities and personal development. To explain, smaller town often offers fewer employment options and limited action to higher education or specialised industries. As a result, many who remains their hometown may witnessed slower growth and fewer opportunities to broaden their horizon. For instance, many young people move to modern cities because better opportunity, higher wage and career advancement. In addition to this, person who relocate may have higher chance to tackle any issues in their life. Therefore, the greater the risk, the greater the potential reward.

To recapitulate, many people choose to live nearby their birthplace because of their strong family ties and familiar surroundings. However, living nearby native place poses a substantial challenges that are limited career opportunities and education. Thus, living in birthplace have far drawbacks than benefits.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response7.0
Coherence and Cohesion7.0
Lexical Resource6.5
Grammatical Range and Accuracy6.5
Overall7.0

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt: reasons for staying near one's birthplace, and the advantages and disadvantages. The position is clear throughout, and the ideas are generally well-developed. For instance, you provide specific reasons like 'emotional support' and 'family business' for staying, and contrast these with 'limited career opportunities' and 'fewer employment options' for leaving. While the development is logical, some points could be expanded further to reach a higher band, particularly in the conclusion where you state there are 'far drawbacks than benefits' without fully balancing the previously mentioned advantages. Overall, the task is fulfilled effectively.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The essay is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. You use a variety of cohesive devices such as 'To commence with', 'Additionally', 'On the contrary', and 'To recapitulate' to guide the reader. However, there are some minor issues with referencing and flow; for example, the phrase 'limit close to one's birthplace' is grammatically awkward and disrupts the cohesion of the second body paragraph. Paragraphing is used appropriately, and each paragraph has a clear central topic. To improve, ensure that transitions between sentences are smoother and that pronouns clearly refer back to their antecedents.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, including terms like 'contemporary era', 'specialised industries', and 'broaden their horizon'. There are some instances of word-choice errors or awkward collocations, such as 'local hood' instead of 'local neighborhood' and 'limited action to higher education' instead of 'limited access'. Additionally, there are minor spelling errors like 'senso' and 'witnessed' (where 'witness' would be correct). While these errors do not impede communication, they indicate a need for more precise control over vocabulary to reach a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While you attempt complex sentences, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with subject-verb agreement and article usage (e.g., 'many who remains their hometown', 'person who relocate', 'because better opportunity'). Punctuation is generally functional, but there are some comma splices and missing articles that affect the overall accuracy. Despite these errors, the meaning remains clear throughout the text. To improve, focus on proofreading for basic grammatical agreement and ensuring that complex structures are formed correctly.

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