Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

Nowadays, an increasing number of people with health problems are choosing alternative medicines and treatments instead of visiting their usual doctor. In my opinion, this is a negative development because such treatments may be ineffective and can prevent people from receiving appropriate medical care.

One major problem with alternative medecine is that it is not always supported by scientific evidence. Some people may believe that herbal remedice or other treatments can fix their health problems, even when there is little proves to support this idea. As a result, they may spend a significant amount of time using not effective treatments instead to just going to doctor for an advice. For instanse, a person with a serious health problems may choose to use alternative medicine rather than going to doctor, giving the illness opportunities to become more serious treat.

Another problem is that not going to doctors can lead to not identefied diagnosis. Many health coditions are easier to treat when they are identefied at an early period. Doctors can use medical tests and their professional knowledge to determine the causes of patients symptoms and give recommendations. In contrast, people who treat themselves may incorrectly identify their diagnosis. As a result, their health could decline before they gain professional help.

In conclusion, of course some alternative medicine may be useful in certain situations, I believe that the growing tendency to use them instead of visiting doctors is a negative development. The risks of not effective treatment and undefined diagnosis can outweigh the possible advantages.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response fully addresses all parts of the prompt by taking a clear position that relying on alternative medicine instead of doctors is a negative development. The writer introduces two main arguments: the lack of scientific evidence and the risk of delayed diagnosis. These ideas are supported with relevant explanations and examples, such as the mention of herbal remedies and serious health problems. The position is maintained consistently from the introduction through the body paragraphs to the conclusion. While some points could be expanded further for an even higher band, the overall development and task coverage satisfy the Band 7 descriptors well.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay presents a clear logical organisation and progression throughout. Each paragraph has a distinct focus, starting with a clear introduction, moving through two body paragraphs with topic sentences ('One major problem with alternative medecine is...', 'Another problem is that not going to doctors can lead to...'), and ending with a concise conclusion. Cohesive devices are used reasonably well, such as 'In contrast' and 'As a result', although some referencing is slightly repetitive. Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately, contributing to an overall coherent piece of writing that is easy to follow.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'scientific evidence', 'significant amount of time', and 'professional knowledge'. However, there are several noticeable spelling and word-choice errors, including 'medecine' instead of medicine, 'remedice' instead of remedies, 'proves' instead of proof, 'not effective' instead of ineffective, 'identefied' instead of identified, and 'coditions' instead of conditions. Although these errors occur with some frequency, they do not impede communication, placing the response solidly in the Band 6 range.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and conditional structures. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several recurring errors, such as preposition usage and word formation, including 'instead to just going to doctor for an advice' (instead of just going to the doctor for advice), 'a serious health problems' (uncountable or plural agreement error), and 'giving the illness opportunities to become more serious treat' (wrong word form 'treat' instead of 'threat'). Punctuation is generally acceptable, but the grammatical errors occasionally distract the reader, aligning the response with Band 6.

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