Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-28

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)

In present times, significant number of modern individuals rely on preprocessed food to consume just for the sake of time conservation.

To begin with,people who lives in the cities or crowded places tend to purchase the packaged food to avoid the time wastage. One does not have to cut the vegetables and chop them , and of course it consumes much time to cook. On one hand this is quite beneficial for those who have hectic schedules and do not have sufficient time to cook for themselves. On the other hand, it is wholly solely the choice of an individual.

Subsequently, most people loves the junk food that is easy to purchase than to cook at home. Moreover, people who consumes convenience food are not use to home cooked food, so they tend to rely on this food. Therefore, this is not always the case. Elderly individuals of rural areas are fond of desi home cooked food. They consumes hygienic food that possess minerals and vitamins.

As far as the concern of disadvantages of preprocessed food, it remarkably lacks the essential vitamins and minerals, rather than home made food. This is significantly hazardous for those already suffering from diseases. For illustration, a person with high blood pressure, if consumes frozen food the consequence will directly be on his health, due to less healthy content. In such cases, home cooked food could be the first priority.

Additionally, people should perhaps be more meticulous while choosing the food type. If a person is consuming consistently the similar food, it could affect adversely his health. Consuming occasionally does not have detrimental effects on one's health. Thus people should be cautious about their fitness as well.

In conclusion, convenience food is easy to consume for growing generation, but total reliance on this food can cause hazardous health effects.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of relying on restaurants and convenience food. The writer presents a clear position throughout the essay. The ideas are relevant, covering time conservation and convenience as advantages, and lack of essential nutrients and potential health hazards as disadvantages. However, some ideas are a bit repetitive or under-developed, and the arguments occasionally wander into general statements rather than deep extensions. For instance, the discussion on rural elderly individuals eating desi food feels slightly tangential to the main focus on convenience food. Overall, the task is adequately fulfilled, meeting the criteria for a Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear attempt at paragraphing, separating advantages and disadvantages. Cohesive devices are used to connect ideas, such as 'To begin with', 'On one hand', 'On the other hand', and 'In conclusion'. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty. For example, the transitions between paragraphs can feel abrupt, and referencing is occasionally unclear, such as the sudden shift to discussing rural elderly individuals. Paragraphing is present, but the internal logical progression within paragraphs needs smoother linking to achieve a higher band.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'time conservation', 'meticulous', and 'detrimental effects'. However, there are notable inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'significant number' missing an article ('a significant number'), 'wholly solely', and 'consumes consistently the similar food'. Spelling is generally good, but awkward phrasing like 'desis home cooked food' and 'less healthy content' detracts from precision. These errors do not impede communication, placing the vocabulary use firmly at Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing conditional structures and relative clauses. However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including missing articles ('significant number', 'consequence will directly be on his health'), subject-verb agreement issues ('people who lives', 'most people loves', 'people who consumes', 'They consumes'), and awkward word order ('if consumes frozen food the consequence'). While these errors do not completely obscure the message, they cause some difficulty for the reader and prevent the grammar score from reaching Band 6.0, landing it at a Band 5.0.

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

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