Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Barron's Writing · 2026-08-30
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)
Nowadays, many people are dependent on restaurants and processed foods as compared to home-cooked meals. In my opinion, In this trend disadvantage outweigh the advantage because no doubt frozen food is easy and quick to prepare but it can be unhealthy for our health if we depend overly on it.
To begin with, there are several benefits of fast food. Firstly people cannot need to do hard to prepare it and take less time as compare to home cooked meals for example majority of people in Canada take their breakfast from TIM Hortons because it is less time consuming way to satisfy their hunger as result most of people choose this easy and frequent way because they have to go on work on time which is part of everyone’s life
Moreover on weekends families want to enjoy their holidays rather than cook something in kitchen that’s why they choose restaurants all in all they do it to save time which is also good thing because in this modern era time is money.
However, no doubt to being fast and save time is good but we also need to take care of our health also people need to be aware of what they are eating is really healthy or not because restaurants are not use fresh ingredients and frozen food not carry healthy bacteria as fresh food
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The response addresses both advantages and disadvantages, but the development is insufficient. The essay is under the 250-word minimum, which limits the depth of your arguments. While you mention time-saving as an advantage and health concerns as a disadvantage, these points are not fully extended with sufficient supporting detail. The position is clear, but the lack of length prevents a more comprehensive exploration of the topic. To improve, you should aim to expand on your examples and provide a more balanced discussion of the implications of relying on convenience food.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay is organised into paragraphs, but the flow between ideas is sometimes mechanical. You use basic cohesive devices like 'To begin with', 'Moreover', and 'However', which help the reader follow your logic. However, the internal structure of the sentences is often repetitive, and the transition between the advantages and the disadvantages could be smoother. The paragraphing is present, but the final paragraph is incomplete and lacks a concluding summary, which affects the overall coherence of the piece.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
Your vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks variety and precision. You rely on simple phrases like 'easy and quick to prepare' and 'good thing'. There are some inaccuracies in word choice, such as 'restaurants are not use fresh ingredients' and 'frozen food not carry healthy bacteria'. To reach a higher band, you should incorporate more precise, topic-specific vocabulary related to nutrition, lifestyle, and food industry trends, and work on using collocations more accurately.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The essay contains a mix of simple and some attempted complex structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors. Examples include 'people cannot need to do hard to prepare it', 'as result most of people', and 'restaurants are not use fresh ingredients'. These errors sometimes make the meaning slightly unclear. You need to focus on subject-verb agreement, correct preposition usage, and sentence construction. Increasing your control over basic grammar will significantly improve the readability of your writing.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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