Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-22

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)

It is often seen that many individuals spend thier entire lives near to where they were born. In this essay, I will discuss the reasons behind this, and what are the merits and demirts of this. The primary reason behind this is the comfort zone. The majority of people spend thier whole lives in one place because they do not want to shift in new place and society. If they move to a new place, they might find it uncomfortable to find a new job and living in a new neighourhood. Moreover, sometimes its hard for some people bodies to adapt a new weather conditions. For example, it is claimed by many people that they never moved to different area beacuse thier bodies will not adapt a different atmosphere. The main adavantage of living in a particular place is a better understanding of employment opportunities. The more time people spend on one place, the more information they can aquire about availability of jobs. However, risding in one place for entire life can limit thier information about different traditions. Indeed, they can learn from books about them, but it can provide them more accurate knowledege if they visit those places. By vsiting new places, people can set thier own perspectives rather than beliving others. In conclusion, individuals never leave places where they were born becuse of comfortness and knowledge of job opportunities. Although it protect thier bodies from new atmosphere related issues, it also limit thier information about different traditional values and experiences.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt, discussing the reasons why people stay in their birthplace as well as the advantages and disadvantages. A clear position is established from the introduction. The ideas are relevant, such as the comfort zone and employment familiarity, but some points are under-developed and rely on generalisations, which is characteristic of a Band 6. For instance, the discussion on weather conditions is somewhat weak and repetitive. However, the writer successfully covers the core requirements of the task prompt, presenting a balanced view of both the merits and demerits.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The response has a coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical progression, moving from the introduction to reasons, advantages and disadvantages, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is utilised, although some paragraphs are visually clumped together or separated awkwardly. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Moreover', 'However', and 'In conclusion', but referencing is occasionally faulty or mechanical, as seen with pronoun usage like 'it can provide them'. Overall, the logical flow is easy to follow, supporting a Band 6 score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common lexical items such as 'employment opportunities', 'perspectives', and 'traditional values'. However, there are numerous spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'thier' (their), 'demirts' (demerits), 'shift' instead of 'move', 'neighourhood' (neighbourhood), 'adavantage' (advantage), 'risding' (residing), 'aquire' (acquire), 'knowledege' (knowledge), 'vsiting' (visiting), 'beliving' (believing), 'becuse' (because), and 'comfortness' (comfort). While communication is not impeded, these frequent spelling and lexical errors prevent the score from reaching higher bands.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including conditional structures ('If they move to a new place, they might find...') and relative clauses. However, there are frequent grammatical and mechanical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('sometimes its hard for some people bodies... to adapt a new weather conditions', 'it also limit') and missing prepositions or incorrect articles ('spend on one place' instead of 'in one place', 'shift in new place'). These errors occur regularly, though they rarely impede overall communication, placing the response firmly at Band 5.5.

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

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