Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-16
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, travelling has become an important part of human beings. Some people would like to stay in their home town for most of their lives. Family support and a cultural attachment make an individual to spend most of the time in their born place. There are several advantages and disadvantages of staying close to the born land.
Firstly, many people prefer to live in their hometown without leaving a family behind. Young individuals are the main supporters of the family, especially when they have older parents and grandparents. Due to poor health of family members, people cannot move to different city or country. They need to stay there and take care of their family. In addition, many individuals are attached to their culture and tradition, which can be faded if they move to different places. For example, Indians celebrate various festivals and devotional activities in their country, which might not be possible if they move abroad. Many international students live in foreign countries for further study and they end up into missing all these cultural activities.
Secondly, one of the major advantages of living in hometown is comfortable life. People can live stress free life with their family. They can share responsibilities related finance, family, or business. People may have easy access to everything including food,
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The student addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing reasons for staying in one's hometown, as well as outlining some advantages and disadvantages. However, the response stops abruptly mid-sentence in the third paragraph due to under-length (218 words, failing the 250-word minimum requirement). Because of this incomplete development and failure to meet the minimum word count, the task is only partially completed. Ideas such as family support and cultural attachment are introduced in the body, but the disadvantages are not fully explored or concluded. This aligns best with Band 5.0.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay displays a basic structure with an introduction and distinct body paragraphs, showing a clear attempt at logical organisation. Transitional markers like 'Firstly' and 'Secondly' are used to sequence points. However, referencing is occasionally repetitive and mechanical, and the paragraphing breaks down abruptly at the end as the text trails off incomplete. Cohesive devices are somewhat limited and underused. Overall, the arrangement shows some structural awareness but lacks a smooth overall progression to a conclusion, justifying a Band 5.5.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary for the task, successfully using terms like 'cultural attachment', 'international students', and 'responsibilities'. However, there are notable word-choice errors and awkward collocations, such as 'born place' instead of 'birthplace', 'born land' instead of 'native land', and 'they end up into missing' instead of 'they end up missing'. Furthermore, some phrasing is repetitive. While communication is generally clear despite these slips, the lexical control is limited, fitting Band 5.5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as 'Due to poor health of family members, people cannot move...' and 'People can live stress free life with their family.' However, there are noticeable grammatical errors throughout, including missing articles ('move to different city', 'live stress free life'), preposition errors ('end up into missing'), and awkward verb complementation ('make an individual to spend'). While these errors do not completely obscure meaning, they occur frequently enough to prevent the writing from achieving a Band 6.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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