Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-27

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In recent years, many small local shops have closed because customers travel to large shopping centres or malls to do their shopping.

Is this a positive or a negative development?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

 

Student answer (Band 5.0)

In past years, it is experienced that most of small scale local shops have been closed. because customers prefer to travel to large shopping centres or malls to do their shopping. I Think this is a negative delvelopment .

Nowdays people use to go large shopping center instead of choosing local shops that could effect in higher unemployment rate in local. that could effect on economic of a country. if people are not getting jobs they might be involve in other bad activities to earn money. so this trend responsible for increase in crime rates.

Furthermore, Another drawback of this trend is lossing traditional local shops that are surviving by selling traditional things like shoes,clothes

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 4.0

The response attempts to address the prompt by identifying the closure of small local shops as a negative development and providing a few reasons, such as unemployment and crime. However, the response suffers from a critical length issue, containing only 115 words, which falls significantly short of the 250-word minimum requirement. Because of this severe under-length, the ideas cannot be fully developed or extended as required for higher bands. While the writer presents a clear position, the lack of adequate extension and supporting details caps the achievement. In accordance with the marking guidelines, a major penalty is applied for failing the length requirement, resulting in a Band 4.0 for this criterion.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The essay attempts to structure ideas into separate paragraphs, but the paragraphing is underdeveloped due to the extreme brevity of the text. There are basic attempts at logical progression, moving from the introduction to consequences like unemployment and loss of traditional shops. However, cohesive devices are extremely limited and repetitive, with over-reliance on basic connectors like 'Nowdays' and 'Furthermore'. Referencing is also somewhat faulty, as seen in phrases like 'that could effect in higher unemployment rate'. The overall organization is disjointed and lacks the smooth flow expected at higher levels. Based on these features, the response aligns best with Band 5.0 descriptors for coherence and cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used throughout the essay is basic and repetitive, featuring words like 'shops', 'shopping', and 'traditional'. There are noticeable word-choice and spelling errors, such as 'delvelopment', 'Nowdays', 'lossing', and the incorrect prepositional use in 'effect in' instead of 'affect'. The range of vocabulary is limited to very common terms, and attempts at less common words result in inaccuracies that occasionally cause difficulty for the reader, such as 'bad activities'. Because the lexical range is minimally adequate for basic communication but contains persistent errors, it corresponds to a Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The text demonstrates a very limited range of grammatical structures, relying heavily on simple sentences and flawed attempts at complex clauses, such as 'that could effect in higher unemployment rate in local'. Punctuation and capitalization errors are frequent, including missing capital letters at the beginning of sentences ('I Think', 'Nowdays') and incorrect sentence splitting like pausing with a full stop before 'because'. Frequent grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('people use to go') and word-form errors ('might be involve'), strain the reader's understanding. These persistent inaccuracies place the response firmly in the Band 5.0 category for grammatical range and accuracy.

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