Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-03

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 6.5)

It is often argued that the majority of people often prefer to reside near to their hometown. It has numerous pros and cons, as they are emotionally connected and familiar with the place. However, some would rarely acheive pinnacle of success.

One reason for living in its child place is childhood connection. If people spend their whole childhood at particular place, making them strongly bonded with freinds, relatives, and local culture. This situation makes difficult for them to migrate to the another country. For example, at the age of fifty, many old citizens always give priority to their birth place after the retirement. Additionally, by residing for a long period of time, people become familiar with their local sorroundings such as grocery stores, schools, and hospitals, which initiate the sense of autonomy. Therefore, it is most likely to be unacceptable for an individual to choose a different place to live.

Conversely, opponents has another approach on this notion that a native place often provides remarkable achievement. This is because a native is connected with their family or relatives while living at their birth place, which would be difficult to broaden their knowledge and skills. This relation restrict them to acheive more goals in their life. For instance, parents often try to enroll their children in hostels to minimise this family gap. So the learner can easily focus on their academics only. Moreover, Armed Forces continuously transfer their soldiers to different places other than native place. This approach would be beneficial for some to stay outside the hometown for getting success due to lack of bondings.

To conclude, while staying in hometown would be the first choice for everyone. Because it keeps people to stay connected with their old friends and sorroundings, the demerit of living at birth place would not be neglected, which plays a vital role to achieve their endeavours.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt: reasons for staying in one's hometown, and the advantages and disadvantages of doing so. The position is generally clear, though the development of ideas is somewhat uneven. For instance, the discussion on the disadvantages of staying in one's hometown is a bit muddled, as the text focuses heavily on the benefits of leaving rather than clearly delineating the drawbacks of staying. While the ideas are relevant, some points, such as the mention of 'Armed Forces', are slightly tangential and could have been more directly linked to the core argument. Overall, the response provides a sufficient overview of the topic.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, each with a clear central theme. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Additionally', 'Conversely', and 'To conclude', which help guide the reader through the argument. However, there are instances where the flow is slightly mechanical or the referencing is unclear, such as the phrase 'living in its child place', which is awkward. The transition between ideas within paragraphs could be smoother to improve the overall progression of the argument. Despite these minor issues, the structure is coherent and easy to follow.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express their ideas clearly. There are some attempts to use less common vocabulary, such as 'pinnacle of success' and 'autonomy', which is positive. However, there are several instances of awkward word choice and collocation errors, such as 'child place' instead of 'hometown' or 'childhood home', and 'sorroundings' (spelling error). While these errors do not impede communication, they indicate a need for more precise vocabulary usage and better attention to spelling and word formation.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors throughout the text, such as 'If people spend their whole childhood at particular place, making them strongly bonded' (fragment/run-on issue) and 'opponents has another approach' (subject-verb agreement). Punctuation is generally functional, but there are minor errors that affect the precision of the writing. While the meaning is usually clear, the frequency of these errors prevents the essay from reaching a higher band. Focusing on subject-verb agreement and sentence structure consistency would be beneficial.

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