Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-18
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)
More people nowadays are using natural or alternative treatments indead of going to regular doctors. While this has some small lifestyle benefits, I believe relying completely on alternative methods instead of real medical doctors is mostly a negative development.
On the positive side, natural methods like yoga, meditation, and healthy eating are great for managing daily stress and minor aches. They encourage people to focus on better sleep, clean food, and general self care, which helps prevent minor lifestyle issues before they become severe.
On the negative side, serious illness- such as heart problems, diabetes, or cancer - need real medical tests like x-rays, blood work, and clinical scans. Using herbs or unverified traditions instead of real medical treatments wastes precious time and allows dangerous diseases to grow much worse inside the body.
Futhermore, real pharmaceutical medicines are tested strictly for safety, purity, and exact dosage in laboratories. Alternative pills or powders often have zero quality control or medical supervision, which can dangerously strain internal organs like your liver or kidenys over time.
In short, natural habits are wonderful for staying healthy and relaxed, but they should never completely replace real medical doctors and scientific tratments when you are truely sick.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5
The response addresses the prompt directly, presenting a clear position that relying entirely on alternative medicines is a negative development while acknowledging some minor benefits. Ideas are extended with relevant examples, such as mentioning yoga and meditation for stress, and serious conditions like cancer or heart problems requiring clinical scans. However, there is an important administrative penalty applied here because the length requirement is NOT met: the response contains only 201 words, falling short of the 250-word minimum. Consequently, the development of ideas is cut short, preventing the essay from reaching a higher band. Because of this under-length penalty, the task response score is limited.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5
The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear logical progression from introduction to body paragraphs and conclusion. Each paragraph has a distinct focus, starting with a clear topic sentence such as On the positive side and On the negative side, followed by supporting explanations. Cohesive devices are used reasonably well to link ideas, including words like Futhermore and In short. Paragraphing is used appropriately to structure the argument. While referencing and linking are generally clear, the lack of full elaboration due to the short length restricts the complexity of cohesive relationships, placing this criterion solidly in the mid-band range.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
The writer uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items and subject-specific terms such as alternative treatments, self care, clinical scans, pharmaceutical medicines, and quality control. However, there are some noticeable spelling errors, including indead instead of instead, Futhermore instead of Furthermore, tratments instead of treatments, truely instead of truly, and kidenys instead of kidneys. Additionally, word choices like real medical doctors instead of conventional medicine or mainstream healthcare show some limitation in stylistic range. These errors and limitations keep the lexical score at a moderate level.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and participial phrases effectively, such as in sentences encouraging people to focus on better sleep. There are several grammatical errors and awkward agreements, most notably serious illness- such as heart problems, diabetes, or cancer - need real medical tests where the plural verb need does not agree with the singular noun phrase or requires pluralization (illnesses). Punctuation is also slightly faulty with hyphens and spacing around dashes. Nevertheless, these errors rarely impede communication, and the sentence structures remain reasonably varied.
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