Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Barron's Writing · 2026-08-17
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 5.0)
In present time, Restaurants have become popular to get food among public. They find hard to cook food by themselves. This trend has both benefits as well as demerits. I will discuss in next paragraphs.
The prominent benefit of getting meals from restaurants is fast and effortless. In Busy times, person can be exhausted and do not want to make food by themselves. They can easily buy food from restaurants. Workers do not have to stay hungry. Apart from that, most of people rely on processed and frozen food. Packed food is convenient handling and tasty. For example, 80 percent people consume packed food during snack time.
Although restaurants and packed food has some benefits, it can put detrimental impact on overall health. The most packed food contains lot of unhealthy ingredients such as artifical color, palm oils and vegetable oils. These oils are not good to consume on daily basis. Secondly, cafe and restaurants usually make meals in bulk. They serve the same items atleast for five days. It is
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 4.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0
The response fails to meet the minimum word count requirement of 250 words, as it is only 171 words long. Consequently, the ideas are significantly underdeveloped. While you identify the advantages (convenience) and disadvantages (health impacts), the discussion is cut short, and the essay remains incomplete. To improve, you must expand your arguments with more detailed explanations and specific examples. The current structure lacks a proper conclusion, and the points made are quite brief. You need to ensure that each paragraph fully explores the topic to meet the task requirements.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
The essay is organized into paragraphs, but the progression is interrupted by the abrupt ending. You use some basic cohesive devices like 'Apart from that' and 'Secondly', but the flow is limited by the brevity of the text. The referencing is sometimes unclear, such as 'They' in the second paragraph, which does not clearly refer back to a specific noun. To improve, focus on using a wider range of linking words to connect your ideas more fluidly and ensure that each paragraph has a clear topic sentence and supporting details.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
Your vocabulary is generally adequate for basic communication but lacks the range and precision required for higher bands. You rely on simple terms like 'popular', 'fast', and 'tasty'. There are some inaccuracies in word choice, such as 'convenient handling' (which should be 'convenient to handle') and 'artifical color'. To achieve a higher score, try to incorporate more sophisticated vocabulary related to the topic, such as 'nutritional value', 'sedentary lifestyle', or 'culinary convenience', and pay closer attention to collocations and word forms.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The response contains a mix of simple and some attempted complex structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors. Examples include 'In present time' (should be 'At present'), 'person can be exhausted' (missing article), and 'most packed food contains lot of' (missing 'a' before 'lot'). Subject-verb agreement and article usage are inconsistent. While the meaning is generally clear, these errors occur frequently. To improve, focus on mastering basic sentence construction, specifically article usage and pluralization, before attempting more complex grammatical structures.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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