Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-04
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 5.5)
In today's world, there is a famous quote, World is a small village. In other words, anyone can go easily from one place to another, from one corner to another corner of the world with the help of aviation for multiple reasons such as travel, study, and work. But there are few individuals who stays and live their whole life in their motherland. This essay shall shade some light on the reasons behind this and will provide advantages and disadvantages.
There are some individuals who prefers to live in their home town for entire life whereas other go out of city or country to explore new opportunities. The main causes of being in the same place where they born, could be multiple such as, Family ties, family business, financially not capable to go out, and emotionally attachment with their motherland. This attitude brings it's own advantages such as, A person can enjoy every moment including all festivals with their family and friends. If someone have a family business, they can join and alleviate to the next level from previous generation left behind. Last but not least, An individual can support and take care of a family member or friends in their needs such as medical emergency.
On the other hand, There are few disadvantages of not pushing your boundaries, not exploring new opportunities, and staying life time in your home town. To begin with, Anyone who has explored the different cities or countries for their studies or work can relate this and will agree with this that they can see the new opportunities, Such as for a student can find a new courses which is not available in their home town, they can easily go out and study that course. For a worker who wants to migrate to the different country can explore new work opportunities.
To sum up, I would say, Every garden has it's own weed, Here everyone has their own factors of being at home or going out and explore new opportunities.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The essay addresses all parts of the prompt: reasons, advantages, and disadvantages. However, the development of these points is somewhat superficial. For example, the reasons provided (family ties, financial constraints) are listed but not deeply explored. The advantages and disadvantages are mentioned, but the arguments lack specific examples or detailed elaboration to fully support the claims. The conclusion is also quite brief and relies on a cliché rather than summarizing the main points effectively. To reach a higher band, you should aim to provide more depth and specific illustrations for each point raised.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is organized into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. However, the use of cohesive devices is often mechanical or inaccurate. For instance, phrases like 'To begin with' and 'In other words' are used, but the transitions between sentences within paragraphs are sometimes abrupt. The referencing is occasionally unclear, such as in the sentence 'Anyone who has explored the different cities... can relate this and will agree with this', where the connection to the previous point is weak. Improving the flow between sentences would significantly enhance the coherence of your writing.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks precision and variety. You rely on basic phrasing, such as 'go out of city' instead of 'relocate' or 'migrate'. There are also some awkward collocations and word choice errors, such as 'shade some light' (should be 'shed some light') and 'emotionally attachment' (should be 'emotional attachment'). While the meaning is clear, the range of vocabulary is limited, and there is little evidence of less common or idiomatic language used with accuracy. Expanding your range of synonyms and collocations will help improve this score.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
There is a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but the accuracy is inconsistent. You frequently make errors with subject-verb agreement, such as 'individuals who stays' (should be 'stay') and 'someone have' (should be 'someone has'). Punctuation is also problematic, with unnecessary commas used throughout, such as 'such as, Family ties'. Additionally, there are errors with articles and possessive pronouns, like 'it's own' (should be 'its own'). While these errors do not completely impede communication, they occur frequently enough to lower the score. Focusing on basic grammatical accuracy and proofreading for common errors would be beneficial.
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.