Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-08

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 4.5)

In recent years, there has been an ongoing debate on people's living choices. Some people like to spend most of their lives living close to the place where they born and brought up. There might be number of reasons of doing this. I believe there would be number of advantages and disadvantages of this statement.

One of the primary reason for individuals who are living close to their birth place is to stay connected with their roots and heritage

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The response is significantly under the required word count of 250 words, reaching only 79 words. Consequently, the task is only partially addressed. The introduction is present, and one reason is briefly introduced, but the essay fails to explore the advantages and disadvantages as requested by the prompt. Because the response is incomplete and lacks the necessary development of ideas, it does not meet the criteria for a higher band score. To improve, you must ensure you fully address all parts of the prompt—reasons, advantages, and disadvantages—and provide sufficient supporting details and examples to meet the minimum length requirement.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.0

The response is too short to demonstrate effective paragraphing or a logical progression of ideas. While there is a basic attempt at an introduction, the lack of body paragraphs means there is no overall structure. Cohesive devices are not used, and the text stops abruptly after the first sentence of a potential body paragraph. To achieve a higher score, you need to organize your ideas into clear paragraphs, each with a topic sentence, supporting arguments, and relevant examples, linked together with appropriate transition words.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.5

The vocabulary used is basic and repetitive, such as 'number of reasons' and 'living close'. There is no attempt to use less common or academic vocabulary. The phrasing 'place where they born' contains a grammatical error that also affects lexical accuracy. To improve, you should aim to incorporate a wider range of vocabulary related to the topic, such as 'proximity', 'heritage', 'social cohesion', or 'career opportunities', and focus on correct word choice and collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.5

The response contains several grammatical errors, such as 'place where they born' (should be 'were born') and 'One of the primary reason' (should be 'reasons'). The sentence structures are simple and limited. Because the text is so short, it is difficult to assess a range of structures, but the existing errors indicate a lack of control over basic grammar. To improve, focus on subject-verb agreement, correct verb tense usage, and expanding your sentence variety by using complex structures like relative clauses or conditional sentences.

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

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