Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-10-04

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 6.5)

Today more and more people choose to eat at restaurants or buy convenience foods, like frozen meals, instead of cooking at home. While this way of eating saves a lot of time, it also has major drawbacks for our health and wallets.

The main advantage of eating convenience food is that it is fast and easy. Many people work long hours and do not have time to shop for groceries, cook, and clean up the kitchen. Buying a ready meal or ordering from a restaurant solves this problem instantly. It gives busy people more time to relax. In addition, restaurants offer a wide variety of dishes from different cultures, which allows people to try new tastes without needing complex cooking skills and also people have no fear of missing the food cooked by their mothers.

However, there are some serious disadvantages to this lifestyle, especially for our health. Most convenience foods and restaurant meals contain too much salt, sugar, and unhealthy fats to make them taste better and last longer. Eating these foods regularly can lead to serious health problems like weight gain and heart diseases. Furthermore, eating out or buying packaged meal is much more expensive than cooking raw ingredients at home. Doing this every day can quickly hurt a person's finances creating a weaker bank balance.

In conclusion, relying on restaurants and prepared food fits well into a busy life, but it can harm our health and cost too much money. It is best to find a balance by cooking simpke meals at home whenever possible.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of eating restaurant and convenience food, fulfilling the core requirements well. It earns a solid intermediate score because the ideas are generally relevant, but some are slightly under-developed or touch upon points that lack extension. For instance, the advantage regarding time-saving is clear, but the sub-point about cultural variety and 'fear of missing the food cooked by their mothers' is somewhat colloquial and lacks full academic development. To reach a higher level, all supporting ideas need to be thoroughly extended with more robust explanation and precise examples throughout.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The essay demonstrates a clear logical organisation and progression throughout, moving smoothly from an introduction to distinct body paragraphs covering advantages and disadvantages, and finally to a concise conclusion. Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately, with each paragraph focusing on a central theme. Cohesive devices such as 'In addition,' 'However,' and 'Furthermore' are deployed effectively to guide the reader, although there is occasional slight mechanical phrasing. To move higher, the writer could employ more sophisticated and less formulaic referencing and substitution to make the flow of ideas even more seamless and unobtrusive.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, successfully conveying the main arguments with terms like 'convenience foods', 'grocery', and 'finances'. The writer makes some attempts to use less common vocabulary, such as 'sub-point' concepts, though there are minor inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, for instance, writing 'packaged meal' instead of the plural 'packaged meals' and the typo 'simpke' in the final paragraph. These errors do not impede communication, but they reflect a typical profile of this standard. To achieve a higher score, the writer needs to incorporate a wider range of precise, sophisticated lexical items and idioms with greater accuracy and natural control.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

The writing exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating a reasonable command of structures such as conditional and participial clauses in sentences like 'Many people work long hours and do not have time to shop...'. There are some errors in grammar and punctuation, such as the missing comma in '...creating a weaker bank balance' and a slight plural agreement lapse in 'heart diseases'. However, these errors are infrequent and rarely impede communication. To attain a higher band, the writer must produce a greater proportion of error-free complex sentences and display tighter control over punctuation and article usage.

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