Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-10

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)

In today's rapidly changing world, food and beverage items sales is rapidly increasing. Many people believes that certain products that contains significant amount of sugar should be costlier as it influence people to consume less sugar. People also argues precooked food and drink products has high level of sugar in it, Which causes numerous health issues. I largely disagree with this view. In this essay, I will provide justification to support my statement.

To begin with, sugary items are addicted. By this I mean person who consumes these type of products on daily basis will eventually get habituated to it. For this type of people even if the prices are influenced by manufacture or government they will still purchase it because it has become their necessity. for instance, prices of Coca-Cola or Pepsi is increased in recent decade still a person who is addicted to it will eventually buy it without having second thought about price. Therefore, I believe It will be hard to stop people just by increasing price.

Another key factor is that change in price will only be beneficial to the management or the owner. To elaborate, if board decides to increase price, the extra income that generate due to this drastic change will only go to the owners and factory workers will not get any advantage for it. It will be a huge disaster for the economy as owners will earn more money and minimum wage workers will still make the same amount per hour which can create a huge gap between society and consumers will also suffer because of this change.

To conclude, I believe if products will be costlier it will effect a many people. This is primary because it is impossible to stop an addict to stop buying it and only the owner or management will only get benefit from this change.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

Your position is clear: you largely disagree that higher prices are an effective way to reduce sugar consumption, and both body paragraphs offer relevant reasons. The example of people continuing to buy Coca-Cola or Pepsi despite price rises helps illustrate your first point. However, the response only partly addresses the proposal: it does not consider whether higher prices might discourage some consumers, and the claim that extra revenue benefits only owners is asserted rather than explained or supported. The conclusion repeats these points but does not resolve the broader question of how effective price increases could be. Develop each reason with clearer explanation or evidence, and acknowledge a counterargument before explaining why your position remains stronger.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, two body paragraphs with separate reasons, and a conclusion. Signposting such as “To begin with,” “Another key factor,” and “To conclude” makes the progression easy to follow. However, some links are mechanical, and the connection between higher prices, owners’ income, workers’ wages, and the economy is not fully established. The second body paragraph also shifts from who receives the extra income to a broad claim about economic inequality without showing the steps between them. Use linking language to express precise relationships, and organise each paragraph around one claim followed by explanation and a relevant example. Clearer referencing would also help readers track who “it” and “this change” refer to.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate your main ideas, including “significant amount of sugar,” “health issues,” “necessity,” and “minimum wage workers.” There are also attempts at more formal phrasing, such as “To elaborate” and “drastic change.” However, the range is limited and several word choices or collocations are inaccurate or awkward, sometimes making the meaning less precise. For example, “sugary items are addicted” confuses the product with the person, while “food and beverage items sales” is not a natural phrase. “Precooked food” also does not accurately describe the manufactured products in the prompt. Build a bank of accurate topic collocations and check word forms and natural combinations when revising.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentences, including a conditional structure in “even if the prices are influenced … they will still purchase it” and a relative clause in “products that contains significant amount of sugar.” These attempts show some range, but control is inconsistent, and errors recur in agreement, articles, verb forms, and sentence construction. For example, “Many people believes” should have a plural verb, while “products that contains” needs a plural verb as well. The sentence beginning “if board decides” is also difficult to follow because its clauses are not clearly controlled. Practise checking subject–verb agreement and article use, and break long sentences into clearer units. More accurate complex sentences would make your reasoning easier to understand.

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