Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-11-07

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Nowadays, a growing number of people with health problems are trying alternative medicines and treatments instead of visiting their usual doctor.

Do you think this is a positive or a negative development?

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

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Nowadays, most of the people with sickness and health problems are taking medicine by their own or taking help from online applications, instead of seeking help from doctors.In my opinion it is completely wrong because if medicine is taken in a high dosage or without proper checkup of allergies and side effects it could lead to severe big problems.

People usually take medicine when they have a simple problem like headache or pimple or any other issue. They take some medicines by themselves which sometimes works, but a proper way of treatment should be, to see a professional, they will check your medical history and examine the disease, its cause wether the disease is viral, bacterial or genetical, then gives you proper medicines,which will help you cure.

Some people also take help from the internet like chatgpt, they share their symptoms and tell chatgpt to help them them cure their disease which is completely nonsense and by using random medicine and ignoring their side ffects can lead to bigger roblems in the longterm.

like my mother has joint problem in the legs she hasnt seen a doctor yet and taking high dosage medicine by herself which leaded to antibiotic resistant.

the problem of our people is that they didnot take a problem seriously until it becomes hard to live with it.in my opinion prevention is better than cure. If someone has a small problem and he knows the cause , simply remove that cause and live happily if a problem is bigger,s seek help from professional in the relevant field.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

Your position is clear: you consider self-treatment and online advice a negative development, and you give relevant reasons, including risks from incorrect dosage and the need for a professional assessment. The example about your mother also makes the concern concrete. This covers the task well, but the support is uneven: the discussion of medical history and identifying causes is more developed than the point about online applications, while the personal example is brief and its claimed link to antibiotic resistance is not explained. To strengthen the response further, clarify how the example demonstrates the danger and develop the consequences of replacing a doctor’s advice with alternative treatments.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable progression from your opinion, to reasons and examples, and then to a concluding recommendation. However, the ideas are crowded into long paragraphs, and the second paragraph moves quickly between self-medication, online advice, your mother’s case, and a general comment about people delaying care. Some links are also unclear, particularly the transition from the example to the claim about antibiotic resistance. Use separate paragraphs for the main reason, the online-treatment point, and the personal example, and make the relationship between each example and your argument explicit. More controlled sentence boundaries would also make the progression easier to follow.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant topic vocabulary such as “medical history,” “side effects,” “dosage,” and “professional,” which helps communicate your concerns. However, the range is limited and several choices or forms are inaccurate or informal, including “simple problem,” “bigger problems,” “random medicine,” and “genetical.” Spelling errors such as “wether,” “fects,” and “roblems” also distract the reader. Aim for more precise health-related collocations and check spelling carefully; for example, describe a condition as “minor,” refer to “unsupervised medication,” and use “genetic” rather than “genetical.” This would make the argument clearer and more appropriately formal.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and complex sentences, including a conditional structure in “if medicine is taken … it could lead” and a longer explanation of what a doctor would do. However, control is inconsistent, and several sentences contain errors that make the reader work to understand the meaning. For example, “they will check … then gives you” shifts subject and verb form, while “which leaded to” has an incorrect verb form and unclear reference. There are also run-on sentences and missing sentence boundaries, such as after “doctors.” Practise keeping each sentence focused, maintaining consistent subjects and verb forms, and checking articles, agreement, and punctuation.

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