Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-10-31

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)

In the recent years, there has been an increasing trend for many people to rely on restaurants and convenience food rather than home-cooked meals most of the times. While there are several advantages to be dependent on packaged or frozen meals, there are also notable disadvantages.

On the one hand, a key benefit is that restaurants and packaged food are very convenient to access and provides variety specially for the people who do not have much time because of their demanding work and schedules. Additionally, packaged or frozen food reduces the overall preparation time relatively to home-cooked food as they are almost ready to eat meals. For example, university students living alone do not much time to prepare every meal during the day as they have presentations and studies that demands a lot of time from them. As a result, they prefer these convenient meals from a local store or ordering from restaurants to save time and rather invest in studies.

On the other hand, one of the main drawback of eating packaged or frozen meals continuously for a long time is that it can affect our overall health as it includes several preservatives and chemicals to increase the shelf life of such items. I believe home-cooked meals are better for our bodies and healthier lifestyle. For instance, people at young age tend to eat a lot of fast food because of its convenience; however, as we grow older, our body demands simple food with home-cooked meals for healthier lifestyle.

Overall, I believe that convenience food is easy to access and save overall time for many people. However, it is also very important to balance overall eating habits with with home-cooked meals to create a healthier lifestyle and avoid any unexpected health issues in the future.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You address both advantages and disadvantages and maintain a clear overall view: convenience saves time, but frequent reliance on these foods may harm health. The examples about busy university students and young people eating fast food help make the points relevant. This meets the core task well, and the explanation of time-saving is reasonably clear. However, some ideas are less fully developed than others: the health concern is linked to preservatives and chemicals, but you do not explain their effects or give a specific example. The claim that older people need simpler, home-cooked food is also broad and not clearly supported. Developing these points with more precise reasoning would make the response more complete and persuasive.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The response has a clear, logical structure: an introduction, a paragraph for each side of the issue, and a concluding summary. The signposts “On the one hand” and “On the other hand” make the contrast easy to follow, while “For example” and “As a result” connect supporting details to the main point. The progression within the advantages paragraph is especially clear, moving from convenience to a student example. Some linking is a little formulaic, and the conclusion largely repeats the earlier points rather than drawing them together in a more developed way. There is also an unclear reference in “as we grow older, our body demands simple food.” More varied transitions and clearer links between claims and examples would improve the flow further.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for the topic, including “demanding work and schedules,” “preparation time,” “preservatives,” and “shelf life.” These choices communicate the main ideas, and the response includes some topic-specific language rather than relying only on basic terms. However, several expressions are imprecise or awkwardly combined, such as “convenient to access,” “invest in studies,” and “demands a lot of time from them.” Repetition of “overall,” “convenient,” and “home-cooked meals” also limits flexibility. Aim for more natural collocations and precise wording, for example, describing food as “readily available” and saying students can “devote more time to their studies.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including clauses introduced by “while,” “because,” and “as.” Most sentences remain understandable, and the examples are generally expressed clearly. Some grammatical errors persist, particularly with subject–verb agreement and sentence construction: “food … provides variety” should be “food … provide variety” when referring to both items, and “students … do not much time” needs a verb such as “have.” There are also errors in number and agreement in “one of the main drawback” and “studies that demands.” The final sentence repeats “with,” and “our body” is not consistent with the plural “we.” Careful proofreading for agreement, missing verbs, and repeated words would improve accuracy.

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