Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-14

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)

Most of time people spend most of their life time on that place where they are born. Although some consider it negative, but I believe to extremely beneficial. Not only because of strong family relationship, comfort and familiarties, but also because of lower living cost.

There are multiple advantages associated with the living close to bron place. Firstly, they have strong family relationship can be considered as leading benefits of this development. As parents already spend lot of time on this place and thus strong relation was build so person prefer to live on such place. Take an example of Germany, where survey conducted in 2015 showed that 80% of people live on the same place where they born just because of strong family relationship which was build already.

Secondly, apart from the family relationship, comfort and familiarties can also be another major benefit. As the person where born have feel comfort because they have no limitation such as language and also understand the local culture of this place. Hence comfort and familiarties can be labelled as most significant advantage, giving this development a positive outlook.

Finally, lower living cost can also be consider a leading benefit of this approach. As the person where born have their own house so if they want to move on another place then their is need to build new house. So, they prefer to live in same place where they born .

To sum up, even though living at the same place where we born have some drawbacks too, but I believe that the benefits in terms of strong family relationship, comfort and lower living cost can make this development an overall positive one.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, discussing the reasons people stay in their birthplace and examining both advantages and disadvantages, though the disadvantages are only briefly touched upon in the introduction and conclusion. The writer takes a clear position ('I believe to extremely beneficial'), and ideas are supported with reasons and a specific example regarding Germany. However, some arguments, such as the disadvantages, are underdeveloped. These limitations place the response comfortably within Band 6.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay has a clear overall arrangement with a distinct introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate ideas. Cohesive devices are employed to signal progression, such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', and 'Finally'. However, referencing and transitions are sometimes mechanical, and occasional awkward phrasing impacts smooth flow. For instance, 'As the person where born have feel comfort' disrupts logical progression. This reflects the Band 6 descriptor where cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting words like 'beneficial', 'significant advantage', and 'development'. However, there are numerous word choice, collocation, and grammatical form errors, such as 'familiarties', 'bron place', and 'move on another place'. Spelling errors ('familiarties') and incorrect prepositions are noticeable. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they restrict the lexical score to Band 5.5, showing a mix of adequate attempts and frequent lexical inaccuracies.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but control is inconsistent. There are frequent grammatical and structural errors throughout the response, such as 'Most of time people spend most of their life time on that place', 'where born have feel comfort', and 'there is need to build new house'. Subject-verb agreement, relative clause formation, and preposition usage are problematic. These frequent errors cause some difficulty for the reader and align the response with Band 5.0.

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

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