Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-08-04

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 5.5)

Nowadays, numerous individuals are dependant on frozen and packaged food instead of eating home-cooked meals. This essay will discuss both merits and demerits of consuming frozen and packaged meals along with conclusion in the paragraphs.

To commence with, there are several benefits of relying on restaurants and convenience food. First and foremost, it is the convenient way for individuals, especially for working people these days everyone is working and they hardly have time for cooking their meals because of fulfilling their office work and that time ordering food from outside is the best decision. As a result, there is no need to stay hungry due to the availability of frozen or packaged food. Moreover, it also saves time. To explain, mostly people spend most of their time in kitchen while preparing meals when there is any party or special event at their home and cannot enjoy the moments. So, that time they can easily order these foods from their favourite restaurant. Hence, these are advantages of frozen or packaged meals.

On the other hand, it has some disadvantages too. Firstly, people can suffer from some serious health issues because these types of foods contain high amount of sugar, fat and salt which can lead to dangerous health issues such as heart failure, obesity and so on. In addition, sometimes people become habitual of eating frozen or packaged meals which also affects their monthly budget and because of this habit they spend most of their money on these types of foods and suffer a lot while managing other expenses.

To recapitulate, according to the aforementioned reasons one can reach the conclusion that the benefits of eating frozen foods are instrumental indeed because it saves time and the easiest way for working people; however, it is very unhealthy and wastage of money which should not be overlooked either.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both the advantages and disadvantages of relying on convenience food. The position is clear throughout, and the main ideas—time-saving for the advantages and health/financial concerns for the disadvantages—are relevant. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the discussion on health issues is brief, and the financial argument could be more thoroughly explored with specific examples. While the prompt is addressed, the essay lacks the depth of analysis required for a higher band score. The conclusion is a bit repetitive, merely restating the points rather than synthesising them effectively.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is logically organised into clear paragraphs, with an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'To commence with', 'First and foremost', 'Moreover', and 'On the other hand' are used to guide the reader. However, some transitions feel a bit mechanical or repetitive. For example, the use of 'Firstly' and 'In addition' is standard but lacks variety. The referencing is generally clear, though some sentences are slightly disjointed, such as the transition between the time-saving benefit and the party example. Overall, the progression of ideas is coherent and easy to follow.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary is adequate for the task but lacks the sophistication and precision needed for a higher band. The student uses common phrases like 'serious health issues' and 'best decision', which are functional but basic. There are some attempts at less common vocabulary, such as 'instrumental' and 'recapitulate', but these are not always used in the most natural context. Word choice is generally accurate, but there is a lack of flexibility and idiomatic expression. To improve, the student should focus on using more precise collocations and a wider range of topic-specific vocabulary related to nutrition and lifestyle.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is always clear, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly with articles ('in kitchen' instead of 'in the kitchen') and pluralisation ('mostly people' instead of 'most people'). There are also some awkward phrasings, such as 'that time ordering food from outside is the best decision'. Punctuation is generally acceptable, but the sentence structure could be more varied to demonstrate better control. The errors do not impede communication, but they are frequent enough to prevent a higher score.

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