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)
Living in your native country and near your loved ones gives you a sense of comfort and boasts your confidence. Such kind of people have strong family ties,earn through anscestral wealth and family businesses and lastly seek a simpler life. However, most often these people are less explorative, missing valuable experiences of this vast and beautiful world. Likewise, they dont chase big ambitions.
One of the major reason for spending most of your life in your hometown is the strong family relations. Such people prefer leaving close to their parents as they have fear of strangers and living in unfavourable conditions. For example, my cousin preferred going to a less-established university opened in her hometown they opting for the opportunity provided by her parents of studying in a well-known university. This will surely have drastic effects on her personl and professional growth. Resulting in lesser confidence and lesser capability of coping up with the difficulties life might throw at her. Moreover, professionally such universities inevitabely contributes to fewer employments opportunities.
Furthermore, it is a fact that advantages of spending life outside your hometown surley outweighs the disdavantags. Firstly, People have more exposure of the outside world. They will face future challenges with more strength and resilience. Eventually, they will become more successfull by accepting maximum opportunities that this world offered them during their ventures. However, leaving your familiar space comes with its own set of hurdles. Sometimes encountering unexpected problems can be overwhelming. Thereby, these comfort seeking people fufills fewer goals.
In conclusion, living most of life in your hometown comes with its perks of a smoother life. However, for a progressive future one must take risks ,meet strangers and opt opportunities that this world offers.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing the reasons why people stay in their hometowns, as well as outlining both the advantages and disadvantages of doing so. A clear position is maintained throughout the essay. However, some ideas lack sufficient extension and support. For example, the reason regarding family businesses and ancestral wealth is mentioned in the introduction but not fully elaborated in the body paragraphs. The example of the cousin illustrates the negative impacts of staying locally, but the development remains somewhat narrow. Overall, the task is addressed adequately, fitting the criteria for Band 6.5, rounded to 6.0 due to under-developed support in places.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt at paragraphing, introducing the topic, discussing reasons and impacts, and concluding logically. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'One of the major reason', 'Furthermore', and 'In conclusion'. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or mechanical. For instance, the transition between ideas can be abrupt, and there are grammatical errors in cohesive structures, such as 'One of the major reason' instead of 'reasons'. Paragraphing is present, but the second body paragraph tries to cover multiple contrasting points rather rapidly, slightly impacting the overall logical flow.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'explorative', 'resilience', and 'drastic effects'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors that detract from the quality, such as 'boasts' instead of 'boosts', 'anscestral' instead of 'ancestral', 'inevitabely' instead of 'inevitably', and 'fufills' instead of 'fulfils'. Collocations are sometimes awkward, like 'opt opportunities' instead of 'seize' or 'opt for opportunities'. The lexical range is sufficient for communication, but these frequent minor slips limit the score to a Band 6.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over structure. However, grammatical inaccuracies are frequent throughout the response. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues ('Such kind of people have...'), article omissions or misuse ('One of the major reason'), and awkward relative clauses or verb forms ('they opting for the opportunity'). Punctuation also requires attention, notably missing spaces after commas and periods. While communication is not impeded and the meaning remains clear, the density of errors keeps the performance at a Band 5.5 level.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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