Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-07-28

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

A growing number of people rely on restaurants and convenience food (frozen food and packaged meals) rather than home-cooked food to supply most of their meals.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of eating this way?

Give reasons for your answer, and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 6.5)

Nowadays, many people are relying on restaurants and easy to cook food which is often made of frozen food and packaged food instead of eating home made food. There are certain advantages and disadvantages of this practice.

The first advantage of this approach is it saves time. This food is easy to get from local stores or from restaurants which is best way for working professional when they do not have time to cook food at home. As, most of the individuals are working over the clock to meet their basic demands, they easily get tired leaving no time for rest. So, instead of wasting their time on cooking, they order food for them.

Another advantage of ready to eat food is that they have various food options available to eat. When they order food from outside stores, they have menu to choose from and most of the food is made by chef's which is not possible to try at homes. They can try options according to their taste with no hard work.

On the other hand, this practice is harmful for children and old aged people because their immune system is not very strong to handle food perspevtive to make food long lasting. While preparing this food, various practices are used which have long term effects on human bodies. Therefore, continuous use of these is not beneficial for these age group people.

Another disadvantage of frozen food and restaurants food is that it is not always fresh because when food is store in fridge or in sealed package by removing oxygen, it lost it freshness and nutrients. Home made food is the best option to have meal.

To conclude, there is no doubt packaged food has various advantages such as time saving and variety of food to try from shops. However, continuous use of it is harmful for human health.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both advantages and disadvantages. The ideas are relevant, such as time-saving and variety for advantages, and health concerns for disadvantages. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the point about 'immune systems' and 'food perspective' (likely meaning preservatives) is a bit vague and could have been expanded with more specific examples or clearer explanations. The position is clear throughout, but the depth of analysis remains at a basic level, which prevents it from reaching the higher bands.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The essay is organized into clear paragraphs, each focusing on a specific aspect of the topic. There is a logical progression from the introduction to the body paragraphs and the conclusion. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'The first advantage', 'Another advantage', 'On the other hand', and 'To conclude'. However, some of the transitions feel a bit mechanical, and there are instances where the flow between sentences could be smoother. Referencing is generally clear, but the overall structure is somewhat predictable.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing the writer to convey their meaning clearly. There are attempts to use topic-specific vocabulary like 'working professional', 'immune system', and 'nutrients'. However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'food perspective' instead of 'preservatives' and 'made by chef's' (incorrect apostrophe usage). The range is sufficient for the task but lacks the flexibility and precision required for higher bands.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('food is store', 'it lost it freshness'), incorrect pluralization ('these age group people'), and punctuation errors (unnecessary apostrophes). These errors do not impede communication, but they are noticeable throughout the text. To improve, the student should focus on proofreading for basic grammatical accuracy and refining the use of complex sentence structures.

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