Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-17

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)

These days, a large number of indviduals facing health issues are looking for substitute medications and treatments in place of their primary doctor. Although this trend can provide people a temporary relief, but i

believe it is a negitive development because people might get wrong medicines with wrong dosage and can delay the diagnose of original disease.

One significant drawback of this development is that people can take unnecessary drugs or wrong dosage. This is because individuals have no knowledge and experience about their illness, and how to cure it. Therefore, they might take wrong medicines without proper diagnosing the disease. As a result, they will suffer from more serious health issues and it can severe their illness. For example, a person is feeling insomia because of stress, but he start taking sleeping pills without asking the doctor, which will increase the chances of severe illness. Therefore, trying alternative medicines can cause serious health issues if used without proper knowledge.

Another important disadvantage of trying alternative treatment will cause in delay of diagnose. If people start using other medications and don't pay attention to the main disease, this will lead to serious problem or incureable disease after short time. For instance, a person who is suffering from heart pain, start taking painkillers, it might give temporary relief but it will delay the diagnose which will have davastating affects on health later. Admittedly, medicine used without expert doctor can delay the identfication of root disease.

In conclusion, although trying others treatments can give a temporary relief to people, I believe that is a negitive development because people can take wrong medication without any prescription, and it will delay thier diagnose of actual disease.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the task by taking a clear negative stance on the trend of using alternative medicines instead of visiting a primary doctor. The position is maintained throughout the essay. Ideas are extended and supported with relevant explanations and examples, such as the mention of insomnia and sleeping pills, or heart pain managed with painkillers. However, there is a tendency to slightly over-generalise and repeat core arguments (such as delay in diagnosis and wrong dosage) across the body paragraphs without introducing entirely new dimensions of the topic. This places the response comfortably at Band 6.5 to 7.0, and since marking is positive, it merits a Band 7.0 for fully addressing the prompt with a clear position and supported ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a clear logical organisation with a discernible introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Cohesive devices such as 'One significant drawback', 'Another important disadvantage', and 'In conclusion' are used appropriately to signal progression. Paragraphing is used sufficiently. However, there are some minor mechanical or faulty cohesive links, such as the ungrammatical transition in the introduction ('Although this trend can provide people a temporary relief, but i believe...'), which shows a slight lapse in managing complex subordinate clauses. Overall arrangement is coherent, leading to a solid Band 6.5, rounded to a Band 6.0 due to the mechanical nature of some transitions and occasional referencing errors.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'substitute medications', 'temporary relief', 'severe their illness', and 'devastating affects'. However, there are notable spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'indviduals', 'negitive', 'diagnose' (used instead of the noun 'diagnosis'), 'insomia', and 'davastating affects' (affects instead of effects). These errors do not seriously impede communication as the meaning remains clear, but they prevent the score from reaching a higher band. This lexical profile aligns well with the Band 6 descriptor, where an adequate range is shown despite some spelling and word-choice inaccuracies.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including conditional and subordinate clauses (e.g., 'If people start using other medications...'). However, there are frequent grammatical and punctuation errors throughout the essay. Examples include the double-marking conjunction error in the introduction ('Although... but...'), spelling/word form errors in verb usage ('he start taking'), and prepositional issues ('without proper diagnosing the disease' instead of 'diagnosis'). While these errors rarely impede communication and the reader can easily follow the arguments, the frequency of basic and complex structural slips keeps the score at a Band 6.0, matching the descriptor for a mix of structures with errors that do not hinder understanding.

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

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