Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-10-16

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)

Majority of people are relying on restaurants and packed food compared to home-cooked food to fullfil most of their nutrition. This trend has both merits and demerits which I will explain in this essay.

To begin, this eating trend saves people's time and money. In other words, they tend to buy such products in order to save their time during office hours and personal meetings. For example, in a recent survey in New York, it has been found that citizens who give up self cooking are making more money compared to those who dedicate a special time for cooking at home. Therefore, this allows them to invest their extra time for further earnings and plannings. Secondly, this cause less spending. Since fast food and frozen items are cheap as compare to fresh meat and vegetables. Ultimately, people save a huge amount of money by following this eating trend.

On the other hand, this may cause health problems in long term. Number of healthcare professionals warned multiple time that packed and frozen meals are unhealthy due to some biological and pathological reasons. For instance, the food in frozen form is more prone for bacterial and fungus growth and when someone will eat this infectious food, they may suffer from gastritis and food poisonous like problems. Also, the quality of food is being compromised in this way. I personally notice that packed food item is less in taste as compare to the fresh from the farm.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You address both sides of the question and make the overall direction clear: convenience food can save time and money, while potentially harming health and quality. However, the discussion is only partly developed. The claim that people who stop cooking “are making more money” is not clearly explained or convincingly linked to the survey, and the health explanation relies on a broad claim about bacterial and fungal growth without clarifying how this relates to properly stored frozen meals. The task also asks for relevant examples, but the personal observation about taste is brief. The response is below the required 250 words, which limits how fully you can explain and support your points. Develop each main idea with a clearer explanation and a specific, relevant example.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a coherent overall arrangement: an introduction, a paragraph on advantages, and a paragraph on disadvantages. Signposting such as “To begin,” “Secondly,” and “On the other hand” helps readers follow the shift between points. Within paragraphs, however, some links are mechanical or unclear. “Therefore” introduces a conclusion about extra time and earnings, but the connection to the preceding survey claim is not fully established. The sentence beginning “Since fast food…” is also left as a fragment, interrupting the flow of the cost argument. Use fewer formulaic transitions and make the relationship between each claim and its explanation explicit. A brief concluding sentence would also give the essay a more complete sense of progression.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use a relevant range of topic vocabulary, including “home-cooked food,” “frozen items,” “healthcare professionals,” and “bacterial and fungus growth.” These choices make the subject clear, and you attempt more specific language when discussing health effects. However, several word choices, collocations, and forms are inaccurate or unnatural, such as “fullfil most of their nutrition,” “self cooking,” “plannings,” and “food poisonous.” “Biological and pathological reasons” is also vague in this context. These errors do not prevent the reader from understanding the main ideas, but they reduce precision and naturalness. Aim for common, accurate collocations and check spelling and word forms; for example, describe meals as “nutritious” or “nutritionally balanced” rather than saying they supply “nutrition.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt a mix of simple and complex forms, including a conditional clause (“when someone will eat this infectious food”) and a reason clause beginning “Since.” Most sentences communicate the intended point, but some grammatical errors affect clarity and control. For example, “Since fast food and frozen items are cheap as compare to fresh meat and vegetables” is a dependent clause without a main clause, while “Number of healthcare professionals warned” is missing an article and has an awkward tense construction. There are also agreement and verb-form problems in “this cause less spending” and “the food … is more prone.” Work on complete sentence structure, subject–verb agreement, and consistent verb forms. These corrections would make your varied sentence attempts more reliable.

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