Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-19

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)

Some people choose to spend most of their lives living close to the place they were born and brought up. There are several reasons for this choice, including strong connection with their family members, financial problems and a sense of belonging. Although, this choice has more advantages of staying in one's hometown but there are some disadvantages also.

One of the major reason of staying close to one's birthplace is their attachment with their family and friends. Many individuals want to stay near their parents and childhood friends in order to support each other. In addition to this, people feel comfortable with their birthplace because they feel familiar with the local communities and their culture. Apart from this another reason is financial factor, Moving to the new city or country can be expensive, particularly because of higher housing and transportation costs which is not affordable for all. For example, a person who has his own house and a comfortable living at his birthplace would not prefer to spend a large amount on relocating.

There are some advantages of staying close to the near and dear ones. First, people can get emotional support and a sense of belonging in their familiar environment. Secondly, one can maintain a strong relationship with their family, friends and local people. Moreover, One can have a better understanding of local opportunities, services and social networks due to which their everyday life could become easy. However, there is a disadvantage of staying in the hometown that if there hometown has limited access of education and employment people can miss better opportunities for their career and can not experience different lifestyle and culture.

In conclusion, people often remains close to their family and friends because of home ties, financial conditions and their comfort zone. This lifestyle bring stability in their lives and strong relations but can limited to grab good opportunities for their career.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt: reasons for staying in one's birthplace, as well as the advantages and disadvantages. The ideas are relevant and generally well-supported, such as the mention of financial constraints and emotional support. However, the development of the disadvantages is slightly thin compared to the advantages. While the position is clear, the essay would benefit from more detailed examples to fully explore the implications of limited career opportunities. Overall, the task is adequately fulfilled with a logical structure that covers all requirements.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The essay is logically organized into clear paragraphs, each focusing on a specific aspect of the prompt. Cohesive devices such as 'In addition to this', 'Apart from this', and 'However' are used to guide the reader through the arguments. While the progression is generally smooth, some transitions feel slightly mechanical, and there are minor issues with referencing, such as the use of 'their' when referring to singular nouns like 'a person'. Nevertheless, the paragraphing is appropriate and the central ideas are easy to follow throughout the text.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary is sufficient to convey the intended meaning clearly. The student uses some topic-specific terms like 'relocating', 'local communities', and 'social networks'. There are some minor inaccuracies in collocation and word choice, such as 'limited to grab good opportunities' (should be 'limited in their ability to grab') and 'this lifestyle bring stability' (subject-verb agreement error). While the range is adequate for the task, it lacks the more sophisticated or idiomatic phrasing that would characterize a higher band score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The student demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors, particularly regarding subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'people often remains', 'this lifestyle bring') and article usage. Punctuation is generally functional, though there are some awkward phrasings, such as 'Although, this choice has more advantages... but there are some disadvantages also', which is a redundant structure. Despite these errors, the meaning is consistently clear, and the mistakes do not impede communication.

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

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