Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-08-26
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)
Most people belive that Packaged and frozen are not good source of food and it can affect your body health in bad way, but I think that this arugement have both pros and cons. I have disscused pros and cons in comping para with conclution at the end.
To being with, there are many advantages of ready to eat and frozen meals, for example : pros like person do not have to make a meal when they are return from somekind of work or office job, it can be easily prepare with few mintues or just from deforst. Moreover, some frozen items like cut vegies are good to have when person do not want to spend their Important time to cut the vegetables and other material to cook found. In addition, scicense claim in reserach that at some of the factors of frozen food are good compare to using normal items.
On the other hand, it is argue that packages meals can be dangers or not gut friendly since it contains lots of chemical to give items long lasting shelf life and it can be dangers for gut health. For this reason, it can affect badly on indiviulas life means that early age kids and pergrant women might face issue in future lifestyle.
To conclude this, I believe that it has more advantages compare to disadvantage. Studies and which we way use this food can change the outcome but if we consume packaged and frozen in proper way it can be useful for everyone.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| 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 convenience food. However, the development of ideas is limited. For example, the argument regarding 'chemical' content is mentioned but not explained in detail, and the claim that frozen food is 'good' compared to normal items lacks specific evidence or logical support. The position is clear, but the overall development is superficial, which prevents a higher score. The introduction is also slightly informal and lacks a clear thesis statement.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0
The essay is organized into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. However, the use of cohesive devices is often mechanical or inaccurate, such as 'To being with' and 'To conclude this'. There is a lack of sophisticated linking between sentences, and some transitions feel forced. The progression of ideas is present but simplistic. While the paragraphing is functional, the internal cohesion within paragraphs needs more variety and better control to achieve a higher band.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The vocabulary is limited and repetitive. There are frequent spelling errors such as 'belive', 'arugement', 'disscused', 'comping', 'mintues', 'deforst', 'vegies', 'scicense', 'reserach', 'dangers', and 'pergrant'. These errors occasionally make the text difficult to read. The range of vocabulary is narrow, relying on basic terms like 'good' and 'bad' rather than more precise academic alternatives. To improve, you should focus on learning the correct spelling of common words and expanding your range of topic-specific vocabulary.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The essay relies heavily on simple sentence structures. There are frequent grammatical errors, including subject-verb agreement issues (e.g., 'this arugement have', 'person do not have'), missing articles, and incorrect word forms (e.g., 'it can be easily prepare'). Punctuation is also inconsistent, particularly with the use of colons and commas. While the meaning is generally understandable, the high frequency of errors in basic grammar limits the score significantly. More complex sentence structures are attempted but are usually inaccurate.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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