Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-14

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)

Many manufactured food and drink products contains excessive amount of sugar, which can led to serious health issues like obesity and diabetes. Therefore, It is widely agrueed that sugar products should be made more expensive to reduce its consumption. I agree with thisviewpoint, due to many reasons which are discussed in the upcoming paragraphs.

To begin with, Increasing the price of sugary products could discourage people from purchasing them regularly. If soft drinks, processed foods, and sweets become expansive, then consumer may choose healthier alternatives like water, fruit, and products containing less sugar. This could particularly effective for parents who buy sugar foods and drinks for their children. In addition, higher prices may encourage companies to reduce the amount of sugar in their products. If companies, can avoid additional costs to produce healthier goods they will have a financial reasons to introduce new recepies to compete with other manufactures. Moreover, money collected through sugar can be used in more effective way to provide better health care services and education.

Although, the price increase is not the effective solution. Some people still continue to buy those products, even if they become more expensive due to their daily habits. The policy could have greater financial affect on low-income families, especially when healthier alternatives are quite not affordable and widely available. For this reason, governments should require manufactures to display clear information regarding sugar levels on packaging. Furthermore, schools and public health organizations should provide awarness campagin to explain the long-term effects of excessive sugar consumption.

In conclusion, I agree that products containing higher level of sugar should be more expansive because this could affect customers' choices which encourage manufacture to produce healthier foods.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student addresses all parts of the task by presenting a clear position on whether sugary products should be taxed more heavily and supporting it with relevant arguments. The response covers both the potential positive impacts, such as reduced consumption and healthier industry recipes, and counter-arguments regarding low-income families and alternative solutions. Ideas are generally well-extended, though some supporting points could be further elaborated. For instance, the mention of tax revenue being used for healthcare services is a valid point that remains somewhat brief. Overall, the task is properly addressed throughout, satisfying the requirements for a Band 6.5 to 7.0 performance, best fitting Band 6.5 due to slight under-development in places.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response features a clear overall progression and is logically organised into an introduction, body paragraphs addressing both sides of the issue, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct ideas. Cohesive devices are employed to connect sentences, with phrases like 'To begin with', 'In addition', 'Moreover', and 'Although' guiding the reader through the arguments. However, referencing and cohesion can occasionally feel somewhat mechanical, such as the abrupt transition in the third paragraph starting with 'Although, the price increase is not the effective solution.' Despite minor faults in referencing and punctuation around cohesive markers, the essay is easy to follow, aligning closely with Band 6.0 to 6.5 descriptors.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'excessive amount', 'alternatives', 'financial reasons', and 'low-income families'. However, there are noticeable word-choice and collocation inaccuracies throughout the text. For example, 'sugar products' should be 'sugary products', 'expansive' is misused instead of 'expensive', 'recepies' contains a spelling error, and 'awarness campagin' features both a spelling and agreement error. Additionally, 'quite not affordable' is unnatural phrasing. While these errors do not impede communication, they reflect the characteristics of a Band 6.0 level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including conditional structures ('If soft drinks... consumer may choose...') and relative clauses ('products containing less sugar'). However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several noticeable errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('Many manufactured food and drink products contains', 'consumer may choose'), punctuation and capitalization slips ('Therefore, It is widely agrueed'), and fragment-like dependent clauses ('Although, the price increase is not the effective solution.'). These errors occur frequently enough to prevent the essay from reaching a Band 7.0, making Band 6.0 the most appropriate descriptor for control of grammar and punctuation.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.