Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-10-24

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)

A large number of people choose to eat in restaurants and convenience food rather than home-cooked meals. In a way, this method is practical for workers and people who lack time during the day to prepare their own food, for many reasons they choose to have ready meals to eat; either they work far from home and they can't move to their locals and back in their lunch break, or maybe they have many duties that forbid them to go buy groceries and prepare food at their house. Therefore, restaurants provide different range of meals including healthy food and also nutritious elements, to keep them strong and able to fulfill their tasks during the day. In the other hand, this type of consumption could have bad effects in different ways. Per exemple, keep relying on convenience food may impact the health of the humans; according to researches on this kind of food can cause lower levels of vitamines that are necessary for the body and the immune system, also in a financial point of view this habit of eating outside home cost a lot of the budget, and this will distabilize the economic situation of the households, which can create other problems.

Personnally, I think people should as much as they can to eat home-cooked meals even if they have to spend more efforts and time to do so, and limit the consumption of street food as they can, only in particular situations when they have no other choice, because our health is not negotiable and we should have a long vision of our future goals.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both sides of the question by identifying convenience for busy people and possible health and financial disadvantages. The examples about working far from home and having many duties help explain why people choose ready meals, and your final paragraph gives a clear personal view in favour of home cooking. However, the discussion is uneven: the advantages are mainly about saving time, while the claim that restaurants offer healthy, nutritious meals is asserted rather than supported. The health point is also vague, referring to research and vitamin levels without explaining how particular foods cause harm. Develop each main idea with a specific explanation or example, and make the distinction between restaurant meals and packaged convenience food clearer.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable overall structure: it introduces the topic, discusses benefits and drawbacks, and ends with your opinion. Linking expressions such as “Therefore,” “In the other hand,” and “Personally” signal relationships between ideas. However, much of the discussion is packed into one long paragraph, so the shift from advantages to disadvantages is not easy to follow. Several ideas are joined by commas or “and,” creating a list-like progression, and “for many reasons” does not lead to a clearly organised set of reasons. Use separate paragraphs for the introduction, each side, and the conclusion; then connect points with more precise transitions and clear references.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main points, including “home-cooked meals,” “convenience food,” “nutritious,” “immune system,” and “economic situation.” There are also attempts at more formal phrasing, such as “fulfill their tasks” and “financial point of view.” However, noticeable spelling and word-choice errors sometimes make the message less clear, including “Per exemple,” “vitamines,” and “distabilize.” Some combinations are also unnatural, such as “different range of meals” and “long vision of our future goals.” Aim for accurate spelling and natural collocations, and choose precise terms when discussing health and costs. This will make your vocabulary more effective without requiring unnecessarily complex words.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including a conditional idea in “even if they have to spend more efforts and time” and a reason clause beginning “because our health is not negotiable.” However, complex sentences are often difficult to control, and several errors affect clarity. For example, “people should as much as they can to eat” is missing a verb form, while “this habit … cost a lot” has a subject–verb agreement error. The opening sentence also joins several clauses without clear punctuation, and “they can't move to their locals and back” has an unclear grammatical pattern. Practise building shorter, complete sentences first, then combine ideas with accurate clauses and punctuation.

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