Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Barron's Writing · 2026-10-05

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)

Due to the fast-paced life style, people nowadays are more dependable on restaurants and packaged food meals instead of home-cooked food. There are several advantages like convenience and less time consuming. However, there are demerits too, such as adultrated food items and poor nutrients.

In the first place, one major advantage of relying on packaged food products is convenience. In other words, people can consume anything of their interest just by purchasing those items readily available in the market at any point of time and from anywhere. In addition, it saves a singnificant amount of time which can be utilized for preparing meals from the scratch. For instance, working individuals buy frozen products, warm them in a microwave oven, and their meal gets ready to eat in a few minutes. As a result, they save a lot of time, which they can effectively use in other essential activities.

On the other hand, there are several drawbacks of consuming restaurant's and frozen food items. First one is adultration. As everyone is focusing on the profit making things, people have been given low quality food items and with alteration. Another worst thing is poor nutritional values that outside food products always come with. For illustration, frozen food items has more preservatives that are harmful for human health. In addition, people often visit restaurants and food they get there is seems to be of low standards as poor quality raw materials are being used to prepare it. As a direct consequence, people may get affected with serious health conditions.

To conclude, although, there are few advantages to rely on packaged food such as convenience and saving time, demarits are more in comparision, because of its questionable quality and nutrient values.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of relying on restaurants and convenience food. The position is clear throughout the essay. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others, which is characteristic of this level. For instance, while the advantage of convenience and time-saving is well-supported with the example of working individuals using microwave meals, the disadvantages such as adultration and poor nutritional values are somewhat repetitive and lack deeper extension. To reach a higher level, the writer should ensure that all main points, particularly the drawbacks, are equally well-developed with concrete examples and broader explanations regarding their societal or long-term impacts.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear staging of ideas, using paragraphs appropriately to separate the introduction, advantages, disadvantages, and conclusion. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'In the first place', 'In addition', and 'On the other hand', but referencing and linking can sometimes feel mechanical or slightly repetitive, as seen with phrases like 'Another worst thing'. The logical progression is generally maintained, but transitions between sentences could flow more naturally. To achieve a higher level, the writer needs to employ a wider range of cohesive devices more flexibly and ensure that referencing is consistently smooth and unobtrusive throughout the text.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The writer demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common lexical items such as 'fast-paced life style', 'dependable', and 'preservatives'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors that do not impede communication, including 'dependable' instead of dependent, 'adultrated' and 'adultration' instead of adulterated and adulteration, 'singnificant', and 'comparision'. Word formation and collocation issues also appear, such as 'profit making things'. To reach the next level, the writer needs to expand their vocabulary range and improve accuracy in spelling and word choice, ensuring that less common items are used with proper collocations and stylistic awareness.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response shows a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an attempt to use relative clauses and conditional structures. There are some errors in grammar and punctuation, but they rarely impede communication. Examples include preposition and article issues such as 'from the scratch', 'restaurant's and frozen food items', and 'food they get there is seems to be'. Subject-verb agreement and pluralisation also occasionally slip, as in 'frozen food items has' and 'nutrient values'. To progress further, the writer must increase control over complex sentence structures and eliminate recurring minor grammatical inaccuracies, particularly regarding prepositions, verb forms, and articles.

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.