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)

Few people live close to when they were born rather than moving to a different place. I believe living in the same place might be comfortable in accomodating themselves rather than chosing a challenging area.

Chosing a place closer to where a person is born might be easy for the person to survive for the rest of his life. The main reason would be comfort and friendly environment. People build a connection with the native humans around which gives them the comfort and strength to build themselves in life.

Most of the people choose to stay in their native villages and cities for the rest of their lives. The benefiting part of this type of living would be not to face any challeges in their lives for living and communication. Few people like to move away from their community and live a different live where they can explore the different culture and tradtions. Of course, it might be a struggle to face a different in the communication and living standard but I feel moving out of the comfort zone and living a tough life can teach humans a wide range of experience in living standards.

Scientifically proven, two seeds were planted and raised under same climatic conditions. One seed was stopped from sprouting by obstructing from a stone and the other seed was free to sprout. After few month, the seed with no obstrucle had normal growth were the seed with an obstrucle had a stronger roots and thigh shoots coming out from other direction. This proves that given tough conditions can rise a living organism strong.

In conclusion, I think living in a different community from the place they are born would be benefiting a human in his life. The growth of the person might be slow but the living standard will be strong comparing to the person living in the same community.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by identifying reasons why people stay close to their birthplace, alongside the advantages and disadvantages. However, the position is somewhat unclear initially, as the opening sentence states that 'Few people live close to when they were born', which appears to contradict the prompt and standard trends. Ideas are present, such as comfort, community connection, and the metaphor of the seeds to illustrate resilience, but some points are under-developed. For example, the disadvantages are explored mainly through a generalized discussion of moving away rather than a direct contrast of staying put. The biological analogy is interesting but slightly misplaced in an IELTS essay. Overall, the task is addressed, but development is limited in places, aligning with a Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph-by-paragraph structure that moves from introduction to reasons, advantages, disadvantages, an extended example, and a conclusion. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical and referencing is occasionally unclear, such as the ambiguous pronoun use in 'two seeds were planted'. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct ideas, and transitional phrases like 'In conclusion' and 'The main reason' help guide the reader through the text, although logical progression between the examples and the main argument is at times strained.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common lexical items such as 'accommodating', 'traditions', and 'resilience' implicitly through 'stronger roots'. However, there are notable word-choice and spelling errors that affect precision, such as 'accomodating' instead of 'accommodating', 'chosing' instead of 'choosing', 'benefiting part' instead of 'benefit', and 'obrustructing' / 'obruscle'. Despite these inaccuracies, the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the general message without significantly impeding communication, fitting the criteria for Band 5.5 to 6.0. Given the frequency of basic spelling errors, Band 5.5 is appropriate.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several noticeable errors throughout the text, including prepositional issues ('close to when they were born' instead of 'where'), article omissions ('a different in the communication'), and awkward phrasing ('given tough conditions can rise a living organism strong'). Punctuation is generally acceptable, but frequent errors in grammar and word formation can cause minor difficulty for the reader, placing this response firmly at Band 5.0.

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

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