Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-11-11

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Doctors tell us that we can get all the vitamins we need from having a healthy diet. Despite this advice, some people continue to spend large sums of money on vitamin pills.

Why do you think some people spend a lot of money on vitamin pills?

How could people be persuaded to improve their diet instead of buying vitamin pills?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 5.5)

These days, health problems has become a widely discussed topic, its significant impact on life span. Although, doctors advice to individuals that correct diet could provide all the vitamints, people spend large chunks of money to buy vitamins medication. This essay will provide reasons and sollutions for this trend.

On the one hand, the primary driver behind this is easy to buy. This is largely because individual are busy in theis daily affairs and they may not have time to eat proper diet to get all the vitamins. For example, supermarkets are loaded with vitamins pills which are easily available to purchase. Therefore, taking pills instead of eating green vegetables and other friuts could be time saving and cheaper.

On the other hand, people should improve the diet instead if pills, There are many ways where people can eat proper food rather than pills, first and foremost is personal and professional ought to be seperate. As most of the time people engrassed into professional work and they do not pay attention towards their eating habits or they eat outside insted they should keep some time for purchasing health food and prepare at home. For instance,eating outside habits could be limit and give preference to cook food at home that can get all vitamins.

Ultimately, In this era, although every thing is available in the market such as vitamins, preperpaired food , these kind of product cannot carry all the vitamins and some time these products harm our body badly so it is better to have natural fruit and vegetable

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion6.0
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You address both questions and give relevant reasons: convenience and busy schedules help explain why people choose pills, while preparing food at home is offered as an alternative. However, the explanation of why people spend large sums is only partly developed; the example that pills are widely available does not fully explain their appeal or cost. The proposed solutions also need clearer development. For instance, separating personal and professional life is not directly explained as a way to improve diet, and the final point about processed products harming the body is introduced without support. A clearer position and more specific explanation or examples for each main idea would make the response more complete and persuasive.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, a paragraph about reasons, a paragraph about solutions, and a concluding statement. Linking phrases such as “On the one hand,” “For example,” and “Ultimately” help signal stages in the discussion. However, progression within paragraphs is sometimes unclear, and some connections feel mechanical or incomplete. The shift from busy schedules to supermarket availability, for example, does not fully show why people spend large sums. In the solutions paragraph, “personal and professional ought to be seperate” is not clearly connected to the later advice about cooking at home. Use topic sentences that state each paragraph’s main point, then explain the link between each example and that point. A more focused conclusion would also improve the overall flow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use some relevant vocabulary for the topic, including “vitamin pills,” “eating habits,” “purchasing,” and “preference,” and the reader can generally understand your intended meaning. However, the range is limited and several word-choice, collocation, and spelling problems make the writing less precise, such as “vitamins medication,” “large chunks of money,” “engressed,” and “preperpaired food.” Repetition of basic terms such as “people,” “food,” and “vitamins” also limits flexibility. Aim to learn accurate topic collocations and check spelling carefully; for example, describe the convenience of supplements or the cost of a balanced diet more precisely. More controlled vocabulary would help express your ideas without relying on vague or awkward phrases.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a contrast clause beginning “Although” and a reason introduced by “because.” However, complex structures are often faulty, and errors in agreement, articles, sentence boundaries, and punctuation sometimes make the meaning difficult to follow. For example, “health problems has become” has a subject–verb agreement problem, while “Although, doctors advice…” is not a complete, correctly formed clause. The sentence beginning “There are many ways…” also runs into a list without clear grammatical structure. Practise building accurate sentences with one main clause and a clearly connected subordinate clause, and check agreement and punctuation when editing. Greater control of these patterns would make your argument easier to read.

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