Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-18
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)
It is often argued that, many health issues arise due to processed food and drink products, because it contains high amount of sugar, and one way to reduce the consumption of sugar is to made these products expensive. Although some people may disagree with the view, I completely agree with it, because by this implementation, people will not spend money on these products, and indirectly it also beneficial for their health.
The primary reason why i agree with this view is that, if sugary products made more expensive, we will able to see a dramatic decline in sale of these products. This is because, people would prefer to spend this money on something, that is worth the money, instead of just fulfil their cravings. For instance, if prices of these products will increase, most of the people are anot able to purchase these products. Consequently, they consume less sugar, and it also help them to spend money for good purpose instead of spend on processed food.
Another significant reason to support this idea is, it will help numerous people to stay healthy and fit. As, when price of these products will increased, many people reduce the consumption of these products. For instance, several health related issues like obesity, laziness and stone in gallblader arised in India, a government tried to lower these numbers, so they did an experiment, according to the instructions of government, prices of these products is increased. As a result, many people stop to buying these products, and automatically the people consume less sugar. Consequently, it helps a lot of people to stay healthy and fit.
In conclusion, i totally agree with the argument, that prices of these products should be increase. It will give us benefits in many ways, like save our money and helping us to stay fit and healthy.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses all parts of the prompt, taking a clear and consistent position in agreement with increasing the price of sugary products. The ideas are relevant and generally developed, such as explaining how higher prices reduce unnecessary consumption and promote health. However, the supporting arguments tend to rely on somewhat repetitive reasoning and a broad, anecdotal example regarding India that lacks specific factual precision. This places the task response comfortably at Band 6, as all parts are addressed with relevant ideas, but some extension and development are slightly limited or under-developed compared to higher bands.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is generally coherent with a clear overall arrangement. The response is divided into an introduction, two body paragraphs supporting the thesis, and a conclusion. However, cohesion is frequently faulty or mechanical, relying on repetitive transitional phrases such as 'Consequently' and 'For instance' across sentences. Paragraphing is present and logically separates the main ideas, but referencing and logical progression are sometimes hindered by awkward phrasing and punctuation errors. These issues align with a Band 6 level, where organisation is visible and the overall message is clear, but cohesive devices are occasionally misused or mechanical.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'consumption', 'obesity', and 'implementation'. However, there are frequent word-choice and collocation errors, such as 'made these products expensive' instead of 'make these products more expensive', 'stone in gallblader arised', and 'stop to buying'. Spelling and morphological issues also appear. While these errors do not impede communication, they reflect the limitations of Band 5 or 6. Because the writer manages to express clear meaning despite these lexical inaccuracies, a Band 6 is appropriate for lexical resource.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating conditional structures and relative clauses. However, the response contains frequent grammatical errors, particularly with verb forms, tense consistency, and auxiliary verbs (e.g., 'if sugary products made more expensive, we will able to see', 'most of the people are anot able to purchase', and 'prices of these products is increased'). Punctuation errors are also noticeable. These errors frequently recur throughout the text, though they rarely impede overall comprehension. This performance fits the Band 5 descriptor where a limited range of structures is used and frequent errors cause some difficulty for the reader.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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