Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-10-19

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 the present time a large number of people rely on the frozen food and restaurants rather than making food themselves or home cooked food. There can be many advantages and disadvantages of eating this way which I will talk about in the upcoming paragraphes.

To begin with, the first advantage is that people can store the frozen food for a long time and they don't need to buy the fresh groceries everyday to cook a meal for them that can save money and their time. Apart from that, people who have work for all week and don't have time to prepare food, the frozen food is best way for them to eat which can save their lots of time and they can have some rest from their hectic schedule. For example, A survey conducted in 2025 in India, shows that more tahn 80% people agree that frozen or package food give them some break after their job and they just need to spend 5 to 10 minutes to heat that food rather than spending 1 to 2 hours on making meal for themselves.

On the other side, it has some disadvantages as well. If people are only rely on restaurants or frozen foods it will effect their health. Beacuse the food isn't fresh anymore if it is in freezer for a long time of period. And when people heat that food in microwave or oven it ruin it's nutrituions and the people can suffer from weakness. For instance, the restaurants prepared huge amount of food and they kept that food frozen for a week and more than that and whenever they have order they just cooked that frozen food. Which is not healthy at all for any person to eat.

In conclusion, frozen food is good for working people who don't have time to preparea meal for them but in limitations. Otherwise it is going to effect their body, with this they also need to get some fresh food or vegetables.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both sides of the question and give a clear overall view: convenience foods can help busy workers, but relying on them exclusively may harm health. The time-saving and storage points are relevant, and the survey example attempts to support the first advantage. However, some ideas are less fully explained than others. For instance, the claim that frozen food saves money is asserted without showing how, while the health argument relies on broad claims about freezing and reheating rather than explaining specific risks or distinguishing restaurant meals from packaged food. Develop each point with a clearer reason and a realistic example, and make the conclusion’s qualification—eating these foods “in limitations”—more precise.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall arrangement: an introduction, separate paragraphs for advantages and disadvantages, and a conclusion. The sequence within the advantages paragraph is understandable, and signposts such as “To begin with,” “On the other side,” and “In conclusion” help the reader follow the discussion. This coherent structure meets the lower-band expectations and shows some features of stronger progression. However, the linking can feel formulaic, and a few connections are unclear: the sentence beginning “For example” is long and combines the survey result with several explanations, while “Which is not healthy at all” is a fragment detached from the preceding example. Use more varied, precise links and make sure each example is grammatically integrated with the point it supports.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “frozen food,” “fresh groceries,” “hectic schedule,” and “nutritions.” Some phrases show an attempt to be specific, such as “spend 5 to 10 minutes to heat that food.” However, the range is limited and several noticeable word-choice, collocation, and spelling errors make parts less natural or occasionally harder to interpret. Examples include “people are only rely,” “it will effect their health,” “package food,” and “ruin it's nutrituions.” Repeated use of “food” and “people” also limits variety. Build accuracy with common topic collocations, and check spelling and word forms; for example, use “packaged meals,” “affect their health,” and “nutritional value.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and longer sentence forms, including a conditional idea in “If people are only rely on restaurants or frozen foods…” and a relative clause in “the frozen food is best way for them to eat.” This shows some range, but control is uneven, and errors in sentence construction, verb forms, articles, and punctuation recur. For example, “people are only rely” needs a correct verb pattern, while “the frozen food is best way” is missing an article. The sentence beginning “For instance, the restaurants prepared…” shifts into an unclear tense and is followed by the fragment “Which is not healthy at all.” Practise building accurate complex sentences and check agreement, articles, and complete sentence boundaries.

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