Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

Nowadays, many people rely on ready-to-eat frozen meals and quick service restaurants and do not wish to cook food by their own for their meals. Personally, I think the main advantages of this is that they can save time and effort required for cooking and it is beneficial for the newcomers, who do not know how to prepare meal. However, there are numerous disadvantages of this trend including health issues like obesity and ready meals are often expensive too.

It is true that because of busy schedule and work pressure many people tends to get their daily meals from either restaurants or convenience food such as packaged meals and frozen foods, in order to save their time and effort in preparing and cooking their meal. By doing this they can get spare time in doing their daily chores. Also, it would be beneficial for students or working professionals, who lacks cooking skills but want to eat delicious meals. For an example, in China, majority of the students, who are learning at university, prefer to order their meals from restaurants, so that they can focus on their study by saving cooking time.

However, relying on processed frozen meals on a daily basis can cause obesity. This is to say that, frozen foods are high in calories and cholestrol, which impacts on body weight and results in developing bad LDL levels and potentially high risk of getting heart related problems. Additionally, ready-to-eat foods are often expensive, as compared to preparing the regular portion meals at home. To illustrate, in India, majority of the students, who are working and living away from their home, often orders their morning and evening meals direclty from restaurants or forzen packaged food twice a day, and thus they are facing obesity issues.

In conclusion, although, there are several advantages of this trend such as saving their time and efforts and it benefits to newcomers, I think we should not neglect the disadvantages which directly affects on their health and causing obesity as well as high risk of getting heart related issues.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both advantages and disadvantages and maintain a clear overall view: convenience saves time and helps people who lack cooking skills, while frequent reliance on these foods may harm health and cost more. The examples about university students in China and people living away from home in India make the discussion relevant. However, some points are asserted rather than fully explained. The benefit for “newcomers” is not clearly defined, and the second example mainly repeats the health concern without showing how the expense affects people. Develop each point with a clearer cause-and-effect explanation, and distinguish the effects of restaurant meals from those of packaged food. This would make the response more fully developed across both sides of the question.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall structure: an introduction, separate paragraphs for advantages and disadvantages, and a conclusion. The progression is easy to follow, and signposts such as “However,” “Additionally,” and “In conclusion” help readers recognise the shifts between ideas. This meets the lower-band expectation for coherent organisation and shows some features of stronger progression. At times, though, linking is mechanical, and references are not always precise: “By doing this” could refer to ordering food or to saving time, while the conclusion repeats the introduction rather than drawing the points together. Use more varied, natural transitions and make links between claims and examples explicit. A clearer separation of the cost point from the health example would also improve paragraph flow.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of topic vocabulary, including “convenience food,” “packaged meals,” “processed,” “calories,” and “cholesterol,” and the meaning is generally clear. There are also attempts at more specific phrasing, such as “daily chores” and “heart-related problems.” However, some word choices and collocations are inaccurate or awkward, including “quick service restaurants,” “prepare meal,” “bad LDL levels,” and “benefits to newcomers.” Spelling errors such as “cholestrol,” “direclty,” and “forzen” also reduce accuracy. Aim for natural collocations and check spelling carefully; for example, use “fast-food restaurants,” “prepare a meal,” and “elevated LDL cholesterol.” This would make your vocabulary more precise without requiring unnecessarily complex wording.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt both simple and complex sentence forms, including clauses with “because,” “who,” and “although,” and most ideas remain understandable. Some sentences are controlled, such as “Additionally, ready-to-eat foods are often expensive, as compared to preparing the regular portion meals at home.” However, there are some recurring errors in agreement, articles, and sentence construction. For example, “many people tends” should be “many people tend,” “students … who lacks” should be “students … who lack,” and “majority of the students … prefer” needs an article before “majority.” The final sentence also has a faulty structure: “although …, I think we should not neglect” needs cleaner punctuation and a more parallel conclusion. Review subject–verb agreement and article use, then proofread longer sentences for complete, balanced clauses.

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