Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-06

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)

Some individuals spend all their lives living at the same location they were given birth to. This is partly beacause of the need for family support and comfort. Although not relocating to a different part of the country can provid built-in support and lower cost of living, it also have it disadvantages like career stagnation and comfort zone trap.

One of the reasons why people prefer to stay close to where they were born is because of family support and guidance. Individual tend to stay close to home inorder to look after the older adults and also to receive help with childcare. To give an example, some parents send their children back to their grandparents when they are busy with work instead of paying for nanny services. Another significant point why they do so is because of familiarity and comfort. People feel safe and secure in places they know well. For instance, some individuals find it hard to make friends and settle in when they move to a new environment so they prefer to stay where they already have friends and they are known instead of moving to a new location.

Staying close to home have many advantages. It provides support network especially to young people that are starting out in life. When they stay around their families and people they know, they can easily get connected to many opportunities and also receive emotional support from their loved ones. Living in the same area with your family can also reduce cost of living since it gives some people the option of living with their family members thereby preventing them from spending unnecessarily. However, there are some drawbacks with this arrangement. Firstly, it can cause career stagnation because the individuals will only be limited to career opportunities around that area. Since they have less contact with people outside their area, they will have limited friends and opportunites. It can also make them to feel less pressure to develop new skills, adapt or meet new types of people.

In conclusion, many people prefer to live close to where they were born because of the familiarity and support they get from their loved ones. Although this can provide great opportunities and reduce cost of living, it can also limit someone's career growth and cause comfort zone trap.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

Your response successfully addresses all parts of the prompt by explaining why people stay close to their birthplace and examining both the advantages and disadvantages. Your position is clear throughout the essay. Ideas are generally extended and supported, such as when you give the practical example of parents sending their children to grandparents instead of paying for nanny services. However, there is a slight tendency to over-generalise in places, and some of the supporting points could be further elaborated with deeper analysis to push fully into higher bands. For instance, the discussion on career stagnation is relevant and adequately explained, yet a more detailed specific example regarding job markets would strengthen your argument further. Overall, your content is fully pertinent to the task requirements and provides a coherent exploration of the topic.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

Your essay demonstrates clear logical organisation and progression throughout. Each paragraph has a distinct focus, beginning with an introduction, moving to reasons, then advantages and disadvantages, and concluding neatly. You use a variety of cohesive devices flexibly, such as 'To give an example', 'Another significant point', 'Firstly', and 'In conclusion'. Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately, separating your thoughts into distinct, manageable blocks. While cohesion is generally well managed, referencing and transitional links occasionally feel a bit standard rather than entirely seamless, which keeps this section appropriately placed at the current level. Overall, the flow of ideas from one sentence to the next is smooth and easy for the reader to follow without confusion.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items with some awareness of style and collocation, such as 'career stagnation', 'comfort zone trap', and 'support network'. However, there are some occasional word choice errors and slips, such as writing 'given birth to' instead of 'born', 'provid' instead of 'provide', 'have it disadvantages' instead of 'have its disadvantages', and 'Individual tend' instead of 'Individuals tend'. Furthermore, there are minor spelling and typographical issues like 'beacause' and 'inorder'. These lexical inaccuracies do not impede communication, but they prevent the vocabulary score from reaching a higher band. To improve, focus on mastering word forms, prepositional collocations, and careful proofreading to eliminate minor spelling slips.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You show a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing structures like conditional ideas and relative clauses such as 'when they are busy with work' and 'that are starting out in life'. There are some errors in grammar, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('Staying close to home have many advantages' instead of 'has', and 'it also have it disadvantages' instead of 'has its') and missing plural markers ('opportunites'). However, these errors rarely impede communication and the meaning remains clear throughout. To move towards a higher band, you need to produce more frequent error-free sentences by rigorously checking basic grammatical agreements, singular and plural forms, and verb endings during your final review.

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

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