Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · 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 5.0)

Few people spend most of their lives living nearby to where they were born, while others prefer to move to different citties or countries. There are several reasons why people live close to their hometown. Although this choice offers a numerous benefits and disadvantages.

Firstly, one of the major reason why some individuals prefer to stay in their hometown is because of family relations, sense of belonging to their communityand familiarization with the language, cluture and tradition. Moreover, most of the people has their well-settled job, or a property in their home city and they prefer job security rather than moving to another city to start job search from scrap.

There are number of benefits of living nearby to the hometown. Firstly, there is no language barrier and people may concersate in their local langauage. Secondly, there is a sense of belonging with the culture, tradition of the hometown. For instance, some peopel finding it hard to adjust in the new country because of the language barrier and new traditions. Finally, people can maintain a healthy relations by devoting time to their family member rather than move to a new country or city.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

The response addresses the prompt only partially, which is compounded by the fact that it fails to meet the minimum length requirement of 250 words, finishing significantly short at 193 words. While the writer attempts to answer both parts of the task by outlining reasons for staying in a hometown and discussing some advantages and disadvantages, the ideas remain limited and under-developed. For instance, the discussion on advantages largely repeats points already mentioned in the reasons paragraph, such as language familiarity and family ties, without introducing fully distinct ideas or deeper elaboration. To improve, the writer must ensure the word count requirement is met and fully develop each part of the prompt with extended explanations and relevant examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

There is some basic organization with an introductory attempt and subsequent body paragraphs, but the response lacks a clear overall progression. Paragraphing is attempted, but the conclusion is entirely missing, leaving the essay abruptly cut off. Cohesive devices are used repetitively and sometimes inaccurately, such as the consecutive use of 'Firstly' in different paragraphs ('Firstly, one of the major reason...' and 'Firstly, there is no language barrier...'). Furthermore, referencing is occasionally unclear, as seen in the confusing transitional sentence at the end of the first paragraph ('Although this choice offers a numerous benefits and disadvantages'). To achieve a higher band, the writer needs to ensure logical progression throughout, avoid repetitive cohesive markers, and include a clear concluding paragraph.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is limited and minimally adequate for the task. There are noticeable lexical errors and inappropriate word formations throughout the text, such as 'nearby to where', 'a numerous benefits', 'familiarization' instead of 'familiarity', 'cluture', 'concersate' instead of 'converse', 'langauage', and 'peopel finding it hard'. The writer also relies on repetitive phrases like 'language barrier' and 'hometown'. While communication is generally maintained despite these errors, they cause some difficulty for the reader. To move up to the next band, the writer should expand their vocabulary range, reduce spelling mistakes, and use less common lexical items more accurately and naturally.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The text displays a very limited range of sentence structures, and attempts at complex sentences are frequently faulty. There are frequent grammatical errors involving subject-verb agreement, such as 'most of the people has their well-settled job', and errors with prepositions and articles, such as 'start job search from scrap' instead of 'from scratch' and 'maintain a healthy relations'. Punctuation is also neglected in places, notably the missing space before 'communityand' in the second paragraph. These frequent errors cause some difficulty for the reader. To improve, the writer should focus on mastering basic grammatical rules, improving subject-verb agreement, and using a greater variety of error-free complex sentence forms.

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

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