Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-01

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)

Nowadays, people send most of their lives living in their hometown. Although, some people believe that it has various advantages of living where you are born. While, others believe that living in the same area for your whole life has various disadvantages. In today's essay I will discuss both the views and giving my opinion in the end.

To begin with, when a person lives in the same area where he was born he already know so many familiar faces and is very comfortable living with all those people. Moreover, it creates a sense of security and safe environment for girls and children. As a result, all persons living in the neighbourhood considers themselves a family and come up with various heart warming gratitude.

On the other hand, many other people believe that living in the same area disconnects you from the things happening in rest of the world. Furthermore, it reduces the opportunity of growing yourself in the future and decrease your worth in the society. Moving to some other places provide you with various opportunities and even help you meet various new people to increase your connections.

In my opinion, I believe that a person should explore many other opportunities. For example, I moves from India to Canada for my further studies and also for new job opportunities and I feel like I would have never got those opportunities if I stayed in India.

In Conclusion, I would like to say is each and everything we do has pros and cons but to keep active and grow with the growing society, one should explore different things, places.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing reasons for living in one's birthplace, as well as the advantages and disadvantages, culminating in a personal opinion. However, the development of ideas is limited and at times superficial. For instance, the reasons given for the advantages, such as 'familiar faces' and a 'safe environment for girls and children,' are not fully extended or supported with deeper elaboration. Similarly, the disadvantages and the personal example regarding moving from India to Canada are stated briefly without exploring wider societal or personal impacts. The position is generally clear, but the overall treatment remains somewhat basic, placing the response at a level where ideas are presented but lack sufficient depth and full elaboration across all parts of the task.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt at logical progression. The essay is divided into appropriate paragraphs, each with a distinct focus, including an introduction, body paragraphs for reasons and pros/cons, a personal opinion, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'To begin with', 'Moreover', 'On the other hand', and 'In my opinion' are used to structure the text, though some referencing and transitions feel a bit mechanical or formulaic. The progression from reasons to advantages and disadvantages is generally easy to follow, successfully meeting the requirements of the lower level while showing some organisational strengths typical of the next band up through its clear paragraphing and signposting.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The writer uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully communicating everyday concepts relating to living in a hometown versus relocating. Attempts are made to use less common items and phrases, such as 'familiar faces', 'sense of security', and 'explore different things', but these are accompanied by noticeable errors in word choice, form, and collocation. Examples include 'send most of their lives' instead of 'spend', 'comes up with various heart warming gratitude' rather than expressing feelings of gratitude or warmth, and minor inaccuracies like 'growing yourself'. While these lexical errors and awkward phrasings are occasionally noticeable and restrict precision, they do not severely impede overall communication, reflecting a minimally adequate range with recurring limitations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writing relies on a limited range of sentence structures, featuring a mix of simple sentences and basic complex forms. There are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, particularly concerning verb tenses, subject-verb agreement, and prepositions. Examples include 'he already know so many familiar faces', 'all persons living in the neighbourhood considers', 'the things happening in rest of the world', and the tense shift in 'I moves from India to Canada'. Furthermore, stylistic issues and template-like phrasing appear in the opening and closing remarks. These frequent errors in grammar and verb forms require some effort from the reader to interpret fully and indicate a heavy reliance on basic patterns with faulty attempts at more complex structures.

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