Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-11

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)

Taking vitamins to mainatain our health is a crucial thing. Some believe that having a healthy diet food consumes same amount of vitamins what people need, whereas others spend large amount of money on vitamin pills for their need. I will elucidate both arguments in details with example in following paragraphs.

To begin with, many people spend lot of money on vitamin pills because of their busy lifestyle and easy access to ready made pills. People who are working for longer hours and do not have enough time to buy groceries and cooking, they generally buy vitamins pills to maintain their health. Due to busy lifestyle where womens are working same amount as mens, they cannot manage their diet, so they chose to buy vitamins for store rather than buying food which has all vitamins. Although avalibility of junk food and fast food make people lethargic to cook healthy food. Besides this, some people have poor knowledge regarding vitamins and source of vitamins from food though they also find easy way to take vitamin pills. For example, people living in abroad where all family member are working, they order food from outside instead of cooking healthy diet food. Therefore, easy accessible of vitamins in stores people try to avoid making healthy food and they spend lot of money to buy vitamin pills.

There are many ways to address this issue to improve thier diet rather than buying vitamin pills. One main things is preparing food for a week if people who are working weekdays they usally get off on weekends, so they should prepare healthy food and they can freeze it. Another thing is many food companies who provides healthy diet food services everyday where no one needs to manage their time, but they can eat healthy food everyday. Additionally, some people also does tiffin services with delivery to their location where they take care of all sources of vitamins such as protein, fibre, gluton, sugar, etc. For instance, some cloud kitchen provide services to their customers at home as well as they make healthy diet food. As a result, there are many ways to improve your diet instead of buying vitamin pills.

In conclusion, some people think spend lot of money in buying vitamin pills, while eating healthy food which has same amount of vitamins. Due to busy work life and easy access to vitamin pills people spend huge amount of money in buying vitamin pills which can be available in healthy food by using food services or preparing food by them for whole week.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address both questions: you explain that busy schedules, limited cooking time and the convenience of pills encourage purchases, then suggest meal preparation and food-delivery services as alternatives. These are relevant responses, and the examples about working families and cloud kitchens help illustrate them. However, the second part is developed less fully: the suggestions focus mainly on convenience and do not explain how people could be persuaded—for example, through clearer public health advice, nutrition education or incentives. Some claims, such as people abroad ordering food because all family members work, are broad and need more precise support. The opening also promises to discuss “both arguments,” although the task asks for causes and solutions. A more direct focus and fuller explanation of each proposed measure would strengthen the response.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response has a clear overall arrangement: an introduction, one paragraph on reasons, one on solutions and a conclusion. Sequencing phrases such as “To begin with,” “Besides this,” and “Additionally” make the progression easy to follow, and the reader can distinguish the two parts of the task. This meets the lower-band expectation of coherent organisation and shows some flexibility in linking ideas. However, several links are mechanical or do not express the relationship precisely; for example, “Therefore” introduces a result that largely repeats the preceding point. Some references are also unclear, as in “they take care of all sources of vitamins,” where “they” could refer to the service or its customers. Use fewer formulaic transitions and make links between cause, example and result more explicit.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “vitamin pills,” “busy lifestyle,” “healthy food,” “groceries” and “delivery.” There are also attempts at more specific expressions such as “cloud kitchen” and “food services.” However, the range is limited and several noticeable word-choice, collocation and spelling errors make parts less natural or occasionally difficult to interpret. Examples include “healthy diet food,” “easy accessible,” “vitamins pills,” “avalibility” and “gluton.” Repetition of “spend lot of money” and “vitamin pills” also limits flexibility. Build a bank of accurate phrases for nutrition and convenience, and check spelling and word forms. More precise wording would make your explanations clearer without changing their ideas.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentences, including clauses introduced by “because,” “where” and “although,” and the overall meaning is generally recoverable. However, the complex structures are often faulty, and errors in agreement, articles, verb forms and sentence construction occur throughout. For example, “people who are working … they generally buy” repeats the subject, while “some people also does” has incorrect subject–verb agreement. In “food companies who provides,” the relative clause also has an agreement error. Some sentences combine several ideas without a clear grammatical structure, which makes the reader work to follow them. Practise building accurate sentences around one main clause, then add a subordinate clause; check agreement and verb forms before adding further detail.

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.