Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-11-04

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)

Nowadays, there is a surge in the number of individuals who depend on restaurant and convenience food rather than home-prepared food to supply most of their meals.

The major advantage of eating oit or preparing a convenience meal is that of time saving. For instance, after a long day at work, most people will simply not have the energy to prepare a meal from scratch. Instead of cooking, one may prefer to go to a restaurant and order their favourite mea or simply prepare convenience food such as frozen pizza. As a result, there is more time to dedicate to other activities such as catching up with friends and relaxing.

However, the downside of eating out may be expense. A personal study has shown that it is more expensive to buy food than to prepare food from scratch. For instance, where I come from, a decent meal at a good restaurant usually costs fifteen dollars going up. If this money is dedicated to cooking at home, over a long period of time, money is saved. Continuously eating out can take a toll on most people's finances.

Adding to that, there is also a general health concern over consuming convenience food such as frozen rice, potato chips and and many more. Many health experts argue that convenience food is not as healthy as food prepared from home using freshly bought ingredients such as tomatoes and onions. Most convenience food also requires cold storage which can be an issue in places with frequent power cuts such as where I come from, Zimbabwe.

In conclusion, I think that home cooked meals are the best and people should generally minimise consumption of convenience food.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both sides of the question: convenience is presented as a time-saving advantage, while expense and health are discussed as disadvantages. Your examples, including a restaurant meal costing “fifteen dollars” and power cuts in Zimbabwe, make the response relevant and personal. The conclusion also gives a clear preference for home-cooked meals. However, the advantages receive less development than the disadvantages, and the discussion focuses mainly on time rather than exploring other benefits of restaurant or packaged food. Some claims, such as convenience food being less healthy, would be stronger with a brief explanation or a specific example. Develop the advantage more fully and balance the supporting detail across both sides.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for the advantage and disadvantages, and a concluding opinion. The progression from saving time to cost and health is easy to follow, and phrases such as “For instance” help introduce examples. This shows effective organisation, though some linking is a little mechanical: “Adding to that” announces another point without showing its relationship to the previous paragraph. The health and storage points are also combined, although they could be connected more explicitly. Use a wider range of natural transitions and make the relationship between each main idea and its supporting example clearer to achieve smoother progression.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

You use an adequate range of topic vocabulary, including “home-prepared,” “from scratch,” “dedicate,” “consuming,” and “freshly bought ingredients.” These choices help communicate the main ideas, and expressions such as “take a toll on most people’s finances” show some flexibility. There are, however, a few spelling slips (“oit” and “mea”) and awkward or imprecise phrases, including “a personal study has shown” and “fifteen dollars going up.” “Convenience food” is repeated often, and “frozen rice, potato chips and and many more” is not a natural list. Aim for more precise collocations and vary repeated terms; proofreading would also remove distracting spelling errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, and several sentences are controlled well, such as “Instead of cooking, one may prefer to go to a restaurant…” and the conditional sentence beginning “If this money is dedicated to cooking at home…”. Most meaning remains clear. Some grammatical and punctuation issues persist: “a decent meal … usually costs fifteen dollars going up” has an unclear construction, while “Continuously eating out can take a toll on most people’s finances” is more accurately framed as “eating out continuously.” The final sentence would read more naturally with a hyphen in “home-cooked,” though this is primarily a written-form issue. Continue practising accurate complex clauses and review sentence phrasing and punctuation.

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