Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-28

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)

Sugar consumed by masses is becoming a major concern as it causes various physical problems. It is often argued that food and drinks with higher sugar concentration should be made more expensive to encourage individuals to maintain their sugar level. I fully agree with this statement of controlling the sugary products by making them costly.

It will be very beneficial for the masses if the sugary products made expensive because it will encourage the people to take better care of their health and to find alternate of sugar.

Firstly, foods and drinks that contain high level of sugar can cause adverse effect on human body, as it increase the sugar level in blood, which can cause various medical problems. By increasing the price of sugary products will encourage the masses to be considerate about their health, which will help the individuals to improve their physical condition. For instance, increasing the prices of carbonated drinks will help the people to stop consuming these type of drinks that will certainly improve their medical condition.

Secondly, people will tends to find alternate of sugar that will help them to choose a better product that have natural properties. For instance, honey is one of the best alternative for sugar as it is very beneficial for health and it has various positive aspects.

in conclusion, sugary products should be made expensive as it can cause various harmfull problems regarding to health. it is the reposibility of government to spread awareness regarding to its detrimental effect on health.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The student addresses the prompt by clearly stating a position agreeing with the proposal to make sugary products more expensive. The main ideas are relevant, focusing on health problems and finding alternatives like honey. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat repetitive and lacks depth. For instance, the discussion on health issues relies on general statements like "cause adverse effect on human body" rather than detailed elaboration or specific examples beyond carbonated drinks. There is a tendency to over-generalise without sufficient supporting evidence. Overall, the response addresses all parts of the task with a clear position, but the support and extension of ideas remain limited, fitting the Band 6 descriptor well.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction and conclusion, along with body paragraphs initiated by sequencing words such as "Firstly" and "Secondly". However, cohesion is frequently mechanical and repetitive (e.g., the heavy reliance on phrases like "help the people to" and "which will help"). Paragraphing is attempted, though some paragraphs are overly brief and lack internal cohesion. Referencing and substitution are occasionally faulty, and transitions between sentences can feel abrupt. These features demonstrate a mix of logical progression and mechanical linking, aligning with Band 6.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as "adverse effect", "detrimental effect", and "concentration". However, there are notable errors in word choice, collocation, and morphology. Examples include "alternate of sugar" instead of "alternative to sugar", "harmfull problems" (spelling and collocation error), and "maintain their sugar level". Furthermore, word forms are sometimes misused, as seen with "tends to find alternate". While these errors occur regularly, they rarely impede overall communication, placing the response securely in the Band 5.5 to 6.0 range, justified here at 5.5 due to the frequency of lexical inaccuracies.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as relative clauses ("foods and drinks that contain high level of sugar") and conditional-like structures. However, grammatical accuracy is weak. There are frequent errors in verb forms, articles, and agreement, such as "if the sugary products made expensive" (missing auxiliary verb), "it increase" (subject-verb agreement), and "these type of drinks" (plural/singular mismatch). Punctuation and capitalisation are also neglected in places, as seen in the uncapitalised opening of the concluding paragraph ("in conclusion..."). Because the errors are frequent and occasionally cause minor strain for the reader while still allowing the core meaning to be understood, a Band 5.0 is appropriate.

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

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