Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-18

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 6.0)

Nowadays, there is a rapid growth in number of people relying on restaurants and convenience food rather than eating home-cooked food to supply most of their meals. This essay will discuss both the advantages and disadvantages with some relevant example to support the discussion.

Firstly, we will talk about the advantages that many people are dependent on restaurants and frozen food instead of eating at home. In today's time, many people are busy in their work life and they do not have time to cook a meal after an arduous day in the office, so they prefer eating from the restaurants. Furthermore, many students who are styding abroad are eating convenience food for living because it is easy to eat and save a lot of time than cooking. For instance, if someone's job is ralated to travelling then they do not have a time to cook. They tend to eat outside or a frozen food which is easy , quick and can be re-heated when required.

On the other hand, despite these benefits, there are notable disadvantages. Major disadvantage is that it is not good for your health. A fresh and healthy home-cooked meal is always better rather than frozen food or packaged food. Health plays an important role in this because convenience food have lots of preservatives which is harmful for your overall health while home cooked meal is full of nutrition

In conclusion, although restaurants and convenience food have advantages, its disadvantages such as deteriorating health condition must be carefully considered before forming a final opinion.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of relying on restaurants and convenience food. The writer forms a clear position and supports main ideas with explanations, such as mentioning busy work lives, international students, and health implications. However, the development of ideas remains somewhat general and lacks deep elaboration. For instance, the discussion on disadvantages could have been extended by exploring the financial cost of eating out or the social impact on family life. Nevertheless, the prompt is adequately covered, aligning well with the requirements for Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction and conclusion. Paragraphing is utilised to separate the advantages and disadvantages, which helps organise the flow of ideas. Cohesive devices are employed, such as 'Firstly', 'Furthermore', 'On the other hand', and 'In conclusion'. However, some referencing and transitions feel a bit mechanical, and the progression within paragraphs occasionally stumbles due to repetitive phrasing or abrupt shifts in examples. For example, the transition from busy workers to students abroad feels slightly disjointed. Overall, the structure meets the criteria for a Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating terms like 'convenience food', 'preservatives', 'deteriorating health condition', and 'home-cooked meal'. There are some attempts at less common vocabulary, but these are accompanied by lexical inaccuracies and spelling slips, such as 'styding' instead of 'studying' and 'ralated' instead of 'related'. Additionally, phrases like 'a time' or 'eat outside or a frozen food' show minor collocation and article errors. Despite these flaws, communication is not impeded, placing the lexical performance at Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The writer demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures such as 'if someone's job is ralated to travelling then they do not have a time to cook'. There are several grammatical and punctuation errors throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues (e.g., 'convenience food have lots of preservatives' and 'its disadvantages such as') and missing articles. However, these errors rarely impede communication and the basic meaning remains clear. The range of structures and frequency of errors are characteristic of a Band 6.0 performance.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.