Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-11-05

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)

Nowadays large porton of people love eating junk and frozen food .there are numeous merits and demerits of this behaviour . I will discuss both the pros and cons in the upcoming paragraphs.

To beign with , the demerits of junk food , obesity have become a major problem in youngsters .Apart from this , peple are dealing with number of other health deseases for example : high blood pressure and blood sugar. this is happening due to food beacause it has made of processed or freezed things . ,for exaple , according to a study ; thr health problems are increasing day by day with eating the fast food items .

On the other hand, people have shortage of time because of their busy sechedule and fast food and half cooked food save their time and energey as a result they can focus more on their goal or job .Moreover,they do spend quality time with their family and friends while they go outside to eat in a restaurent,for instance , i saw many people having bussines meeting in reastaurents and caffe while eating or drinking . Nevertheless, childern do enjoy outside food and they get exposer to outer word for which is helpfulll for thier future .

In conclusion i would say, advantages of fast food and frozen food outweigh the disadvantages.As i mentioned above restaurents and frozen food one can save time and energy because pepole are working around the clock to earn their bread and butter so, they can utilize this time to spend with their near and dear

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both advantages and disadvantages and give a clear overall view in the conclusion: you believe the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. The health risks of processed food and the time saved by convenience meals are relevant points. However, the discussion is uneven and some ideas are only briefly stated. For example, obesity and other health problems are listed without explaining how frequent reliance on these foods contributes to them, while the benefits of eating out with family or attending business meetings receive more attention. The point about children gaining exposure to the outside world is also unclear and not clearly linked to the question. Develop each main idea with a specific explanation or example, and make sure the conclusion follows from the comparison presented.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, a paragraph on disadvantages, a paragraph on advantages, and a conclusion. This makes the overall direction easy to follow, and signposts such as “On the other hand” and “In conclusion” help identify the stages of the argument. However, some connections are mechanical or unclear. The disadvantages paragraph moves from obesity to other diseases and then to an unsupported study reference, while the advantages paragraph shifts from saving time to socialising and children’s exposure without clear links between these points. Some sentences also run together, making relationships harder to follow. Group related ideas more carefully, use linking phrases only where they express a precise relationship, and make references such as “this” clearly point to a specific idea.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “processed,” “high blood pressure,” “save their time and energy,” and “business meeting.” There are also attempts at less basic expressions, such as “bread and butter” and “near and dear.” However, the range is limited and several word choices or spellings make the message less clear, including “half cooked food,” “outer word,” and “exposer.” Repetition of “fast food,” “frozen food,” and “people” also limits precision. Choose more accurate collocations, such as “ready-made meals” or “convenience food,” and check spelling carefully. Aim to use a wider range of precise terms for health effects, time pressures, and social benefits rather than relying on broad or informal expressions.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more extended sentence forms, for example, “people have shortage of time because of their busy schedule” and the sentence explaining that convenience food saves time so people can focus on work. However, complex sentences are often difficult to control, and errors in agreement, articles, sentence boundaries, and punctuation occur throughout. For instance, “obesity have become” has a subject–verb agreement problem, and “people have shortage of time” needs an article. Several sentences begin with lowercase letters or join separate ideas with commas, which makes the structure harder to read. Practise building accurate sentences with one clear main clause and a correctly connected supporting clause, then check agreement, articles, and punctuation.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.