Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-08-01

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)

Many people depend on restaurants and readily available food (frozen food and packed meals) instead of home-cooked food to supply most of their meals. The merits and demerits of eating this way will be discussed in the ensuing paragraphs before drawing a rational conclusion at the end.

There are many benefits to prefer eating this way. Firstly, it save lots of time, which usually waste on food preparation. To explain this, people do not have enough time to make foods because of their busy work schedules. As a result, they rely on packed meals. Secondly, it is also beneficial for those people who do not know cooking. In other words, many people do not have skills to make home-cooked meals, and because of that they just rely on restaurant food.

Moving to the drawbacks of eating packed meals, they generally do not have good nutritional values. Fast foods have more amount of fat and sugar. For example, restaurant burgers and fries have more fats and calories, which is main reason for more numbers of people have obesity. Moreover, they also have preservatives and artificial colors, which is harmful for our health. Moreover, hygiene is also main concern in such foods. Restaurant kitchens usually do not maintain hygiene standards, and because of that their food have more amount of harmful microorganisms such as harmful bacteria and virus. This can easily make someone ill.

To recapitulate, advantages of eating packed food include they are time-saving and beneficial for people who do have cooking skills, and disadvantages are low nutritional value foods and risk of getting diseases.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses both the advantages and disadvantages of relying on convenience food. The ideas are relevant, covering time-saving and lack of cooking skills as advantages, and nutritional concerns and hygiene as disadvantages. However, the development of these points is somewhat limited. For instance, the argument regarding hygiene is asserted without specific examples or a deeper explanation of why restaurant kitchens might struggle with this compared to home environments. While the position is clear, the supporting arguments could be extended further to reach a higher band. Overall, all parts of the prompt are addressed, and the response maintains a consistent focus throughout.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The essay is logically organized into clear paragraphs, each with a distinct focus. The use of cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', 'Moreover', and 'To recapitulate' helps guide the reader through the arguments. However, some transitions feel slightly mechanical, and the referencing is occasionally repetitive (e.g., 'because of that' is used multiple times). The progression of ideas is generally clear, but the internal structure of the paragraphs could be improved by varying the linking phrases to create a more natural flow. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the different aspects of the topic.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the student to convey their ideas clearly. There is an attempt to use topic-specific vocabulary such as 'nutritional values', 'preservatives', and 'microorganisms'. However, the range is somewhat limited, and there are instances of awkward phrasing or word choice, such as 'more amount of fat' instead of 'higher fat content' or 'more numbers of people have obesity' instead of 'higher obesity rates'. While the meaning is always clear, the lack of more sophisticated or precise collocations prevents the essay from reaching a higher band score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The essay demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors throughout, particularly with subject-verb agreement and article usage (e.g., 'it save lots of time', 'do not have skills to make', 'is main reason'). Additionally, there are issues with pluralization and phrasing, such as 'more amount of harmful microorganisms'. While these errors are frequent, they do not impede communication, and the reader can easily follow the intended meaning. To improve, the student should focus on proofreading for basic subject-verb agreement and ensuring correct article usage.

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