Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

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

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)

It has been noticed, that large number of individuals prefer to eat packaged and frozen food rather than home-cooked meals. The rise in this trend is due to hectic and fast-paced life of people. Ordering food from restaurants can save time, but it could be harmful for our health. Whereas, home-cooked meals are mostly fresh and nutritious.

The primary reason behind this behavior is excessive working hours and tight schedules, due to this, they barely have time to cook their meals. So they prefer to order food from a restaurants or get a tiffin service. Similarly, with the rise in the popularity of food delivery applications, individuals become lazy because they can order food conveniently from the comfort of their homes. Therefore, eating frozen food regularly could affect their health, because multiple chemicals and preservatives are added in packed food to increase their shelf life and to sustain taste for longer period of time. Most of the times, these products are high in fats or sugar and also lacks basic nutrients.

On the other hand, home-cooked meals are always healthy and better for individual's well-being. Self-cooked food is always fresh and nutritious, which protects our body from multiple diseases such as cancer, type-2 diabetes, and other cardiovascular diseases. Even though, both doctors and fitness trainers always recommend to consume home-cooked food, because consumption of healthy and fresh food have several benefits such as better sleep, energetic mornings and also reduce stress-level.

To sum up, Ordering frozen food the restaurants or convenience stores can help in saving time, but it has harmful effects on health. However, home-cooked food is full of healthy nutrients and recommended by every health experts. So, the advantages of home-cooked meals easily outweigh the advantages of consuming frozen food.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses both the advantages and disadvantages of relying on convenience food. The position is clear throughout, and the main ideas—time-saving versus health risks—are relevant. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited. While you mention that convenience food is harmful, the explanation could be more detailed by exploring specific social or economic impacts. The conclusion effectively summarizes your stance, though it repeats points already made. To reach a higher band, ensure that each body paragraph provides a more thorough exploration of the implications of these trends rather than just listing them.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay is logically organized into clear paragraphs, with a distinct introduction, body, and conclusion. You use some cohesive devices such as 'The primary reason,' 'Similarly,' and 'On the other hand' to guide the reader. However, some transitions feel slightly mechanical or repetitive. For instance, the use of 'due to this' and 'therefore' could be varied to improve the flow. Additionally, the referencing is occasionally slightly unclear, such as in the second paragraph where the link between 'tiffin service' and the subsequent sentence could be tighter. Overall, the progression of ideas is easy to follow.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'hectic,' 'fast-paced,' 'nutritious,' and 'cardiovascular diseases' appropriately. There are some minor inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'Self-cooked food' (better: 'Home-cooked food') and 'every health experts' (should be 'all health experts'). While you attempt to use some less common vocabulary, the range is somewhat limited, and the phrasing is occasionally repetitive. To improve, focus on using more precise collocations and avoiding minor errors that slightly distract from the professional tone of the essay.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The essay uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is generally clear, there are several grammatical errors, such as 'It has been noticed, that' (unnecessary comma), 'a restaurants' (article error), and 'consumption of healthy and fresh food have' (subject-verb agreement error). Punctuation is generally functional, but there are instances of awkward phrasing that affect the fluency of the text. You have a good grasp of basic structures, but increasing the variety of complex sentences while ensuring subject-verb agreement and correct article usage will help you achieve a higher score.

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