Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-08-24
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, individuals do not have enough time to make home make food, they always prefer restaurants and readymade food which is frozen packaged so highly. This reason have advantages as well drawback. In the forthcoming paragraph I have discuss both things at the end.
On the one hand, due to have busy schedule people do not have much time to prepare meals for whole day they prefer convenience food which is readymade and you just have to do little warm. This is big advantage like they can save extra hour to do some productive work even they can give rest to their body in their leisure time so that they can give their best in the next day. In addition, they do extra curriculum activities like, playing, gym and many more they want. so this are the most beneficial for them.
On the drawback side, they can spoil their health to take frozen food because some foods made by plam oil ,which is very harmful for our body. We cannot survive whole day to eat this type of foods. Moreover, we do not know how many long preserve this food in the fridge and what type of spices are used in this some allergy have in our body but we don't know what is so, we try to get home-cooked food which is very healthy and with the extra protein. Therefore, always prefer to home made food.
In Conclusion, frozen food can save our time but spoil our health as well as, so we should always home cooked food to supply most of their meals instead of preservative.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses both the advantages and disadvantages of relying on convenience food. However, the development of ideas is limited. For example, the advantage of saving time is mentioned, but the explanation is repetitive and lacks depth. The disadvantages regarding health are also somewhat superficial, focusing on 'palm oil' and 'spices' without exploring broader nutritional or social implications. The position is clear, but the overall development is basic, and the conclusion is slightly disjointed. To improve, you should aim to provide more specific examples or logical consequences for each point raised to ensure the ideas are fully extended rather than just stated.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is organised into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. However, the use of cohesive devices is often mechanical or inaccurate. Phrases like 'On the drawback side' and 'In the forthcoming paragraph' are either non-standard or awkward. Referencing is sometimes unclear, such as in the sentence 'what is so, we try to get home-cooked food', where the connection to the previous clause is lost. While there is a logical progression from advantages to disadvantages, the transitions between sentences are often abrupt, which hinders the flow of the argument.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks precision and variety. There are several instances of awkward phrasing and incorrect word choices, such as 'do little warm' instead of 'reheat' and 'extra curriculum activities' (which refers to school activities, not general leisure). The repetition of basic words like 'food' and 'time' limits the range. To reach a higher band, you should focus on using more precise collocations and academic vocabulary, such as 'nutritional value' or 'time-efficient', rather than relying on simple, repetitive descriptions.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede communication. Issues include subject-verb agreement ('This reason have advantages'), missing articles ('to take frozen food'), and awkward sentence construction ('some allergy have in our body'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with comma usage. While the meaning is generally understandable, the high frequency of errors in basic grammar prevents the writing from reaching a higher band. Focusing on sentence structure and proofreading for basic errors would significantly improve your score.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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