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 a 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 6.0

The response clearly addresses all parts of the task by presenting a well-defined position that relying on alternative medicine instead of traditional doctors is a negative development. The writer develops main ideas around the lack of scientific evidence and the risks of delayed or incorrect diagnoses. For example, the argument is supported by explaining how unproven treatments might give illnesses the opportunity to become more serious, and how early detection by medical professionals is crucial. While the development is relatively straightforward and could be extended further for a higher band, all requirements of the prompt are fully met with a clear and consistent stance throughout the essay.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay demonstrates a clear overall progression with a logical arrangement of ideas. Each body paragraph focuses on a distinct negative consequence of using alternative medicine, introduced by clear signposting phrases such as "One major problem with alternative medecine is..." and "Another problem is that...". Cohesive devices are used adequately, and paragraphing is appropriate, with a clear introduction, two distinct body paragraphs, and a concluding summary. Although some referencing and connective choices are a bit repetitive or basic, the text remains coherent and easy to follow from start to finish.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The writer demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common terms such as "alternative medicines", "scientific evidence", and "professional knowledge". However, there are several noticeable spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including "medecine" instead of medicine, "remedice" instead of remedies, "proves" instead of proof, "not effective" instead of ineffective, "instanse" instead of instance, "treat" instead of threat, and "identefied" instead of identified. Despite these lexical and spelling inaccuracies, the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the intended meaning without severely impeding communication.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating attempts at subordination and relative clauses, such as "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." However, grammatical accuracy is undermined by frequent errors in word formation, preposition use, and sentence structures, such as "instead to just going to doctor for an advice" and "giving the illness opportunities". Punctuation is generally acceptable, and while the errors require some effort from the reader at times, communication is not completely blocked, fitting the Band 6 profile.

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