Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-09-13

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)

Health professionals advice people to take healthy diet to fufill their vitamin requirements. Nevertheless, individuals spend large sums of money on the pills because of their hectic and busy daily life schedules. Despite of spending on the pills people should get more disciplined and must prepare their meals at home.

The preponderant impetus for buying the pills is hectic and busy work and home life schedule of the people. Most of the individuals work 5 to 6 days in a week to fulfill their basic life needs and for financial stability. Because of this it is prevelant that they do not get enough time for helthy meal preparations and instead they feel it is more convenient for them to take pills.Not only this, easy availability as well as low prices makes it easier to afford the multivitamin tablets.

Nutritionists should conduct free lessons to spread awarenss and teach people about how to do the meal preparations in the easiest ways possible so that the generations should take healthy diet instead of the viatmin capsules.The lessons can teach discipline and motivation required to eat healthy.Moreover, governments must increase taxes on the supplements. As this can make people think before spending large sum of money and they might adapt healthy eating habits.

To conculde,Although it is uncommon for people to eat healtrhy because of their life styles, by motivating and spreading information they can be taught to adapt healthy eating habits rather than buying the supplements.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses both parts of the prompt, explaining why people spend money on vitamin pills due to hectic lifestyles and suggesting ways people could be persuaded to improve their diet. However, the ideas are somewhat repetitive, particularly regarding busy schedules. Furthermore, the length check indicates that the response contains 244 words, falling slightly short of the 250-word minimum requirement. Consequently, this negative impact on task completion pulls the overall score down. While the position is clear, the development of ideas lacks sufficient depth and extension to reach a higher band. Therefore, a band score of 5.5 is appropriate for this criterion, reflecting partial development and the failure to meet the minimum word count.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay is divided into four paragraphs with a clear introduction and conclusion. Ideas generally follow a logical progression, moving from the causes of vitamin pill usage to potential solutions. Cohesive devices such as 'Nevertheless', 'Despite of', 'Moreover', and 'To conculde' are employed, although some are used inaccurately or mechanically. For instance, 'Despite of' contains a grammatical error, and paragraphing is sometimes basic. Referencing is generally clear, but the overall organization shows occasional disjointedness between sentences. This places the response firmly in the band 6 category, as the arrangement is coherent overall, but cohesion is sometimes faulty and mechanical.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student attempts some less common vocabulary such as 'preponderant impetus', 'prevelant', and 'multivitamin tablets'. However, there are notable spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'fufill' instead of fulfill, 'helthy' instead of healthy, 'awarenss' instead of awareness, and 'conculde' instead of conclude. The range of vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to communicate their main ideas, but the noticeable spelling and lexical errors occasionally impede smooth reading. This performance matches the descriptor for Band 5.5, showing a limited but minimally adequate range with frequent spelling errors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'Most of the individuals work 5 to 6 days in a week to fulfill their basic life needs and for financial stability.' However, there are frequent grammatical errors, such as 'Health professionals advice' instead of advise, 'take healthy diet' missing the article 'a', and 'Despite of spending' where 'despite' is incorrectly followed by 'of'. Punctuation is also problematic in places, with double spaces and missing commas. Because errors are frequent throughout the text, although they rarely completely impede communication, the grammar fits the Band 5 descriptors where attempts at complex sentences often contain faults and frequent errors cause some difficulty.

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