Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-24
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, unhealthy products are causing a lot of health issues. A number of manufactured eatables contains high level of sugar, which result in many health issues. It is believed that prices of some products should be raised to motivate individuals to consume less sugar. In my opinion this issue can be tackled in more efficient ways like imposing heavy tax and government involvement.
On the one hand, companies are not only producing sugary foods, but also selling them at cheap prices. This encourages individuals to purchase them and boosts the consumption of sugary goods. To demotivate the sales heavy taxes can be imposed on these food items which should by the sellers. For instance, imposing taxes on certain food item especially for the seller will make it more supervised than before.
On the other hand, catering this problem by raising the prices is not a solution. Governments should get involved in this matter. The main site that should be considered is limiting the production of such stuff. Another step that can be taken is running campaigns to promote healthy foods in diet. This is seen in government schools and ration schemes which mainly focus on availability of healthy and nutritious meals to children that include fresh and home cooked meals called the mid- day meals
In conclusion, rather than raising the price to stop of manufactured sugary products which cause health issues, methods like imposition of tax and government campaining should be used that will help in adressing the issue in an effective way.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
The response addresses the prompt directly by discussing whether sugary products should be made more expensive and offering alternative solutions, such as taxation and government intervention. You take a clear position throughout the essay, stating that alternative methods are more efficient than simply raising prices. The ideas are relevant and generally supported, such as mentioning mid-day meals and rationing schemes. However, some arguments tend to be a bit repetitive or slightly under-developed, particularly regarding how heavy taxes on sellers would fully solve the issue. Because you successfully address all parts of the task with a clear stance and extended ideas, this performance aligns well with Band 6.5, leaning towards Band 6.0 due to some slight lack of depth in fully exploring the counter-argument.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs presenting contrasting views, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different arguments. However, cohesion at the sentence level is occasionally faulty or mechanical. Phrases like 'On the one hand' and 'On the other hand' are used to structure the text, but some transitional sentences lack smooth integration. For instance, the sentence 'This is seen in government schools and ration schemes...' feels slightly disjointed from the preceding statement about limiting production. Referencing and conjunctions are sometimes basic or imprecise, leading to a score in the Band 6 range.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
Your vocabulary range is adequate for the task. You attempt some less common lexical items such as 'demotivate', 'intervention', and 'nutritious', but there are noticeable inaccuracies in word choice and collocation. For example, 'To demotivate the sales' is unnatural phrasing, and 'catering this problem' is an incorrect collocation for addressing an issue. Additionally, there are minor awkward expressions such as 'manufactured eatables' instead of manufactured foods. Spelling is generally accurate, but the lexical errors prevent you from achieving a higher band. These limitations reflect a solid Band 6 performance.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence forms throughout the essay, such as 'It is believed that prices of some products should be raised to motivate individuals...' However, there are frequent grammatical errors and awkward structures. For instance, 'A number of manufactured eatables contains high level of sugar' suffers from a subject-verb agreement error ('contains' instead of 'contain') and a missing plural article ('levels'). Furthermore, 'which should by the sellers' is missing a verb, and 'stop of manufactured sugary products' is grammatically imprecise. While communication is not severely impeded, these recurring errors place your grammatical control firmly at Band 6.0.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
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