Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-17
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)
The birth place is special for anyone who is going to spend most of his time when he grows and gets education. Although he has to move another area with heavy heart to earn money or get addmission in renouned unversities, but he can not forget the time that he spent in his younger life.
The person loves to live close to where he borns and becomes habituial to that environment, culture and living style. He is familiar with the nearby people who live like a family. He has good know how to geography of that area. He knows all the facilities of that area. These are all factors which are in a favour to spend their lives comfortably because people get the emotional attachments with them as time passes.
On the other hand, people moved to another place, face a challange in their lives to become familiar with the life style of a new place. However they tend to cope themselves but emotionally they are not able to do so which can cause mental stress. Living in the same place throughout the life has also disadvantages because people do not have exposure to certain advancements. They do not get chance to explore the traditions of different areas.These factors have an adverse effect on the development of personal skills. As in subcontient, there is a tradition of a joint family system in which people live in the same home where they born. These people are enjoying their lives in their family terms but not be able to move ahead in order to become successful.
Conseuently, living close to birthplace is an influencial experience which
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing reasons why people stay near their birthplace, as well as the advantages and disadvantages. The writer presents relevant ideas, such as emotional attachment, familiarity with surroundings, and mental stress when relocating. However, the ideas are somewhat under-developed, and the response ends abruptly mid-sentence, which impacts the overall completeness of the task. For instance, the discussion on disadvantages touches upon the joint family system and personal skill development, but these points lack deeper elaboration. Therefore, the task is addressed adequately but does not fully extend all concepts to reach a higher band. Band 5.5 is appropriate here.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay displays a basic overall progression, with distinct paragraphs introducing reasons, advantages, and disadvantages. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Although', 'On the other hand', and 'However', though some transitions feel a bit mechanical or awkward, as seen in 'However they tend to cope themselves'. Paragraphing is attempted, but the final paragraph is incomplete, breaking the structural flow. Referencing is generally clear, but occasional minor cohesion lapses exist. Overall organisation is present, but progression and referencing limitations place this firmly at Band 5.5.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully employing terms like 'emotional attachments', 'mental stress', and 'joint family system'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, such as 'renouned unversities', 'habituial', 'know how to geography', 'coulp', and 'Conseuently'. Additionally, words are misused or misspelled in basic ways ('borns' instead of 'were born', 'subcontient'). These errors cause some difficulty for the reader and reflect a limited lexical control, corresponding to Band 5.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and subordinate conjunctions like 'Although he has to move another area with heavy heart...'. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, incorrect prepositions, and missing articles, such as 'move another area', 'close to where he borns', and 'not be able to move ahead'. Sentence structures frequently contain errors that cause strain for the reader. Given the mix of complex structures alongside persistent, frequent errors, a band score of 5.0 is reflective of the current level.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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