Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-05

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 6.5)

It is natural to have emotional attatchment to the place where one is born. Some people prefer to spend their entire lives in the same city where they were bornand bred. This is largely due to the love for that place and their family who lives there. Living near one's birth place offers the advantage of familiarity and convenience, but there are certain disadvantages, such as, limited career opportunites and consequently a hindered professional growth.

People who spend their entire lives living close to their birth place are emotionally bonded to it. The deep connection they share with that place is due to their loved ones who live there, with whom they have shared countless childhood memories. My brother had always wanted to live in Pakistan because he thought that he will never be able to adjust at a new place where his parents and siblings were not present. For this reason, he had set up his own business in Pakistan and never thought of moving abroad, despite the good career prospects he had there.

Living close to the place where one is born provides the comfort and convenience of being familiar with that environment. This comfort zone is essential to achieve peace of mind. To instantiate, people living abroad come to spend holidays in their home country so that they can meet their friends and family. This allows them to relax and unwind. However, there are certain disadvantages as well, which includes the limited professional growth and career opoortunities. Someone who lives in a village might not have better career prospects and consequently circumscribed professional growth.

In conclusion, although emotional attatchment is the driving factor due to which people prefer to spend their entire lives close to the place where they were born. While it offers the advantage of convenience and peace of mind, it sometimes limits the professional progress.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response successfully addresses all parts of the prompt, exploring the reasons why people stay in their birthplace as well as discussing both the advantages and disadvantages. Your position is clear from the introduction to the conclusion. However, while the advantages and the primary reason of emotional attachment are reasonably extended with examples such as your brother's experience in Pakistan, the disadvantages section is somewhat under-developed. For instance, the point regarding limited career opportunities for someone living in a village is touched upon but remains brief. To reach a higher band, all aspects of the task, particularly the drawbacks, require deeper elaboration and more fully sustained support.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

Your essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear staging of ideas from reasons to advantages and disadvantages, followed by a summary conclusion. Paragraphing is used sufficiently to divide the essay into logical sections. Nevertheless, some cohesive devices feel slightly mechanical or repetitive, and referencing is occasionally affected by sentence structure issues. For example, the concluding sentence begins with 'In conclusion, although emotional attatchment is the driving factor...', which leaves a dependent clause dangling without an independent main clause to complete the thought. To achieve a more advanced band, you need to ensure smoother, more natural transitions between ideas and flawless use of complex cohesive structures throughout.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items and phrases such as 'born and bred', 'peace of mind', and 'circumscribed professional growth'. Communication is never impeded, which is a strong feature of this level. However, there are a few spelling and word choice inaccuracies present, such as 'attatchment' instead of 'attachment', 'bornand bred' with a missing space, and minor typos like 'opportunites' and 'opoortunities'. Additionally, some collocations could be more precise. To move to a higher band, you should eliminate basic spelling errors and exercise greater control when employing sophisticated vocabulary.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

Your writing displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating that you can construct multi-clause sentences such as 'Living near one's birth place offers the advantage of familiarity and convenience, but there are certain disadvantages...'. There are some errors in grammar and punctuation, such as missing articles ('limited career opportunities'), tense inconsistencies ('family who lives there' versus past narrative elements), and a sentence fragment in the conclusion where an 'although' clause lacks a main clause. Fortunately, these errors rarely impede communication and you maintain a reasonable level of control over basic structures. To progress further, aim for a higher proportion of error-free complex sentences and refine your punctuation control.

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