Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-08-22

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 5.0)

In recent times, a huge number of people having health issues are focused on experiencing alternative medicines and treatments rather than contacting with their regular health consultant. Although, medicines help individuals to recover their health problems, these medicines should be prescribed by a medical specialist.

Many people believe that there is an alternative of visiting to doctors chamber is to search of pills and treatments. In this regard, some of the people try to save the money of visiting charge for their regular check-up. For instance, doctor suggests to their patient to do a variety of tests which requires extra money. The point I am trying to make is that a group of people claim that they are known to their physical problems as well as the medicines for their specific issues.

As we all know, each coin has two faces. Though a segment of people trust that they are able to find an alternative to visit to a doctor, there is some negative effects for the statement. Well the reason is that, an usual doctor is specialised about physical problems, as all the possible treatments and the necessary medicines. For instance, they can suggest appropriate pills to cure a specific disease, whereas their patient are not concerned about these terms. Moreover, a proportion of people may have some critical problems because of their over confidence.

In conclusion, if there is an instant solution for recovering problem which is common to a proportion of people, there are some dangerous effects for cheap or alternative treatments.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The response addresses the prompt by discussing the trend of using alternative medicine, but the position is not consistently clear. While you acknowledge both sides, the argument lacks depth and specific examples. For instance, the mention of 'doctor suggests to their patient to do a variety of tests' is a relevant observation, but it is not fully developed to explain why this leads to the use of alternative medicine. The conclusion is somewhat vague and does not clearly state whether you view the development as positive or negative, which is a requirement of the task. To improve, ensure your position is clearly stated in the introduction and maintained throughout the essay.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is organised into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow the structure. However, the use of cohesive devices is often mechanical or inaccurate. For example, 'Although, medicines help individuals...' uses a comma incorrectly after a conjunction, and 'Well the reason is that' is too informal for an academic essay. Additionally, the transition between ideas is sometimes abrupt, such as the jump from discussing costs to the claim that people know their own physical problems. Improving the variety and accuracy of linking words will help the flow of your arguments significantly.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary is generally adequate for the task but lacks precision and sophistication. You rely on basic phrasing such as 'huge number of people', 'health issues', and 'physical problems'. There are also some awkward collocations, such as 'contacting with their regular health consultant' and 'visiting to doctors chamber'. To reach a higher band, you should aim to use more precise academic vocabulary and collocations, such as 'consulting a general practitioner' or 'self-medication'. Some errors, like 'over confidence' (should be one word), are minor but indicate a need for more careful proofreading.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally impede clarity. Common issues include subject-verb agreement (e.g., 'doctor suggests to their patient' should be 'doctors suggest to their patients') and incorrect preposition usage (e.g., 'alternative of visiting to'). There are also punctuation errors, such as the unnecessary comma after 'Although'. While the meaning is generally understandable, the frequency of these errors prevents the essay from reaching a higher band. Focusing on basic sentence construction and subject-verb agreement will improve your accuracy.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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