Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-14

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)

In the contemporary world, a large proportion of people are favouring the notion of trying alternate medicines and treatments over visitng their usual doctors. Although switching doctors and medicines provide a second opinon, I believe that it is a negative development because it will delay the diagnosis and put an extra financial burden.

The primary advantage of trying a different method is that it adds one more opinion. Visiting multiple doctors may facilitate a varity of specialised treatments. Every doctor has their own way of dealing, understanding and treating patients. For instance, patient who is suffering from a chronic desease may consult doctors from different fields in order to get a a better treatment rather depending on a single doctor and medicne, which may not ameliorate their condition.

Despite the aforementioned advantage, its negative impact should not be denied. Firstly, going to multiple doctors may cause a delay in treatment because a new doctor will have no idea of the patient's medical history. As a result, it may take longer than usual time to understand the situation of a patient to a new doctor. Besides, hospitals are far away these days and travelling can put an economic burden. People who are not in a good condition often require an ambulance for movements, which cost them a colossal amount of moeny compared to a regular taxi. On top of that, new doctors also ask for recent medical test reports, while regular doctors know the medical history of their old patients. For instance, a person who is disabled by birth and visiting a new doctor will need to go through all the fresh medical checkups and an exorbitant transport charges, resulting in a potential mental and financial pressure.

In conclusion, although visiting multiple doctors and switching medicines may provide a better cure, it disadvantages in terms of delays and costs are far more significant. However, people should visit a specialised doctor and do proper research before taking any medicine so that they should not have to try different methods.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by discussing whether using alternative medicines and treatments instead of regular doctors is a positive or negative development, adopting a clear position that it is a negative development. The essay presents arguments for both sides, acknowledging the benefit of a second opinion in the second paragraph before focusing on the drawbacks, such as delayed diagnoses and financial burdens in the third paragraph. However, the interpretation of 'alternative medicines and treatments' occasionally drifts into 'visiting multiple doctors', which slightly shifts the focus of the prompt away from non-conventional therapies specifically. Despite this minor semantic blurring, the main ideas are relevantly extended and supported with examples, such as chronic disease and disabled patients, fulfilling the requirements for Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay is generally coherent with an overall logical arrangement. Each paragraph has a clear central topic, moving from an introduction to a counter-argument, then the main argument, and finally a conclusion. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'The primary advantage', 'Despite the aforementioned advantage', 'Firstly', and 'In conclusion'. However, referencing and paragraph transitions are sometimes mechanical or slightly imprecise. For instance, the transition in the conclusion ('However, people should visit a specialised doctor...') introduces a new recommendation rather than summarising the main stance smoothly. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different ideas, supporting a solid Band 6.0 placement for cohesion and logical progression.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The candidate demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'contemporary world', 'ameliorate', 'exorbitant', and 'colossal'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, including 'alternate' instead of 'alternative', 'visitng', 'varity', 'desease', 'medicne', 'moeny', and 'disadvantages' used as a noun phrase ('it disadvantages in terms of'). These errors do not seriously impede communication, but they reflect a lower band threshold where vocabulary control lacks precision, placing this response firmly at Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including subordinate clauses ('Although switching doctors and medicines provide a second opinon, I believe...') and conditional structures. There are, however, several grammatical errors and awkward phrasings. For example, subject-verb agreement is flawed in 'switching doctors and medicines provide' (should be 'provides'), and prepositional issues appear in 'depend on a single doctor... rather depending on'. Punctuation and article usage also exhibit minor slips. Because the errors occur alongside correct complex structures and rarely impede overall understanding, the performance corresponds to Band 6.0.

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