Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-26

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 6.0)

It is a fact that mostly people are staying at the same place throughout their life where they were born. There are many reasons for this situation and I think it has more downsides than the advantages. This essay will discuss both the causes and demerits of staying at the same place.

There are following reasons why people spend their life at the same place where they were born. To begin with, people may have find their comfort at that particular area. When they are living at the same place since a long time they familiar with that particular environment, city, people and with the landmarks. It has been researched by the scientists as well that, when people spend time at the same place for long years, it is hard for them to adjust with different surroundings. Moreover, some people also find difficult to adapt with the new city or country and they choose to live close the old neighbourhood.

There are some downsides for happening this situation. Firstly, they lose the opportunity to do something better. For example, if people get chance to study or work in different city or country with better pay and if they are not accepting the offer then they lose the chance. Furthermore, they will not be able to explore or learn new things by not moving to other city.

To conclude, the reason why people spend their lives at the same place where they were born is that they are comfortable and not adaptive to live in other area. It has more negatives as people can not be able to grow their self by losing opportunity to do something better.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource6.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.5
Overall6.0

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The student addresses all parts of the prompt, including the reasons for staying in one's birthplace and the advantages and disadvantages. However, the student's stance is slightly confused in the introduction, where they state that the essay will discuss 'both the causes and demerits', omitting the advantages which are subsequently addressed in the body paragraphs. Ideas are generally relevant, discussing comfort zones, fear of adjustment, and missed opportunities for career growth. Nevertheless, these points tend to be somewhat repetitive and lack full development with specific, compelling examples. While the prompt asks for advantages and disadvantages, the student concludes that it has 'more negatives', which fulfills the requirement, but the discussion of advantages is minimal and briefly conflated with missed opportunities. Overall, the task is addressed adequately, placing it at a solid Band 6 level.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with clear paragraphing, dividing the introduction, reasons, downsides, and conclusion appropriately. Logical connectors such as 'To begin with', 'Moreover', 'Firstly', and 'To conclude' are employed to guide the reader through the text. However, cohesion is at times mechanical and repetitive, particularly with transitional phrases. Referencing is occasionally slightly unclear, such as 'For happening this situation', which disrupts the natural flow of ideas. Paragraphing is used sufficiently, but internal paragraph cohesion could be strengthened by better linking sentences together rather than relying on formulaic sentence starters. Consequently, the organization reflects the descriptors for Band 6.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully communicating everyday concepts relating to living environments and career choices. Words and phrases such as 'comfort zone', 'surroundings', 'landmarks', and 'opportunities' are used appropriately. However, there are notable lexical errors and awkward collocations throughout the text, such as 'mostly people are staying', 'have find their comfort at that particular area', 'live close the old neighbourhood', and 'grow their self'. These inaccuracies indicate a limited flexibility in lexical choice and prevent the response from achieving a higher band. The spelling and word choices, while containing errors, generally do not impede overall communication, aligning with Band 6 standards.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and conditional structures such as 'if people get chance to study or work in different city or country with better pay and if they are not accepting the offer then they lose the chance.' However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are frequent errors in verb tense, subject-verb agreement, and articles, including 'mostly people are staying', 'since a long time they familiar with', 'find difficult to adapt', and 'people can not be able to grow their self'. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they occur regularly enough to restrict the score. The control of grammar is characteristic of a Band 5.5 to 6.0 profile, comfortably meeting Band 5 criteria with occasional higher features.

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

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