Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-25

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Many manufactured food and drink products contain high levels of sugar, which causes many health problems. Sugary products should be made more expensive to encourage people to consume less sugar.

Do you agree or disagree?

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Nowadays, indeed almost every manufactured food and drink products contains high levels of sugar. Which ultimately results in many dangerous diseases. But, I could not disagree more with this statement which says that sugary products should be made more expensive to encourage people to consume less sugar. I will give several logical reasons below to support my answer.

Firstly, by increasing the costs of products it will straight up effect the poors who eats such treats occasionally. We need to influence people on adopting healthy lifestyle by spreading the harmful aspects of eating such disgusting food full of sugar on social media. For instance, higher authorities should run tv shows in which they show public how these products are made in factories and their drastic after effects on human health.

Supposedly, if we increase the cost of sugary products there will be a very small difference in the percentage of people who will not be buying them anymore and the majority will be still eating these products up as usual. One of the effective way to solve this problem is that companies and brands should limit the production of these sugary products and produce a very small batch everyday.

If there will be less products in the market the less percentage of consumption will be in the world. People will automatically focus on other healthy things rather then just eating these harmful sugary food and drinks. Adds on, the authorities should be implying specific laws for such food manufacturing companies like the amount of sugar goes into a single product and much more. The companies should regulate on these cautions if not then they should be sealed or fined heavily.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear position against the proposed tax. However, the development of ideas is somewhat uneven. While the argument regarding the impact on lower-income groups is relevant, the suggestion that companies should simply 'limit production' is not fully explored in terms of economic feasibility or market dynamics. The response covers all parts of the task, but some arguments are under-developed, and the focus shifts slightly toward government regulation rather than strictly addressing the tax proposal. The position is consistent throughout, but the depth of analysis is limited, which prevents it from reaching a higher band.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is organized into logical paragraphs, each with a central theme. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Firstly', 'For instance', and 'Supposedly', though some transitions feel a bit mechanical or slightly misused, such as 'Adds on' to start a paragraph. The progression of ideas is generally clear, although the connection between the argument about production limits and the conclusion could be smoother. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct points, which helps the reader follow the writer's line of reasoning despite some minor issues with flow.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express their opinions clearly. There are some attempts at less common vocabulary, such as 'drastic after effects' and 'regulate on these cautions', though some collocations are slightly unnatural or imprecise. The use of 'the poors' is grammatically incorrect and stylistically inappropriate; 'low-income individuals' would be more suitable. While the range is sufficient to convey the message, the lack of precision and occasional word-choice errors limit the score to the 6.0 band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('every manufactured food and drink products contains', 'the poors who eats') and punctuation errors, including sentence fragments ('Which ultimately results in...'). While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding the main points, they are frequent enough to be noticeable. The writer demonstrates an ability to construct complex sentences, but control over these structures is inconsistent, which is characteristic of the 6.0 band.

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