Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-20

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 this contemporary society, individuals with health related issues preferred to use substitutional drugs and treatments rather then consulting their personal doctor. Although this trend offers several advantages in terms of saving money and obtaining knowledge about medicines, but there also have several limitations associated with this practice that can not be overlooked. This essay will give reasons with pertinent iilustrations to rationalize my opinion.

Firstly, one of the major benefits this development is that it saved the epensive checkup charges of physicians. As MBBS doctors invest a huge amount of money in their studies, they charge a huge amount during treatments. Therefore, using traditional medicines is the source of keeping this amount save. Secondly, by reading and investigating manual available on the medicines, people would also obtain idea about different drugs and their effect on the human body. Thus, this would benefit them in a long run.

However, using medicines with out the prescription of professional doctor may also cause hamfull effect on your body. This is primarily because noval chemicals that are not familiar to immune system of human can cause a rigrous reactions in blood stream. This activity may destroy the tendency of a body to resist against future attack by infectious agents. For instance, several different proteins like enzymes have ability to attack B and T cells of White blood cells and should be given to patient under certain circumstances. Therefore, if a person intake such kind of proteins as medicine then this may cause serious consequences.

In conclusion, as in this is era AI and technology, people search for a particular medicine as well as specific course of treatment without consulting professionals. While this practice offers certain merits but has significant drawbacks that cause considerable harmful effects.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of using alternative medicines, and takes a clear position by weighing these aspects. In the introduction, the writer outlines the essay's direction, and body paragraphs present relevant arguments, such as saving money on doctors' fees in the second paragraph and the potential health risks of unfamiliar chemicals in the third paragraph. However, some ideas are slightly under-developed or rely on broad generalisations, such as the mechanism of how enzymes attack B and T cells. Overall, the response meets the core requirements of Task 2 by presenting a balanced view with supporting examples, aligning best with the Band 6 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear paragraph structure consisting of an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The writer attempts to sequence ideas logically using basic cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', and 'However'. However, cohesion is at times faulty and mechanical. For instance, the sentence structure in the introduction contains a noticeable error ('Although this trend offers several advantages... but there also have several'), which disrupts the flow of concession. Additionally, referencing is occasionally imprecise. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different arguments, which supports readability, placing the text firmly in the Band 6 category.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, attempting less common lexical items such as 'substitutional', 'rationalize', 'epensive', and 'rigrous'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice inaccuracies throughout the text, including 'substitutional' instead of 'substitute' or 'alternative', 'then' instead of 'than', 'epensive', 'iiilustrations', 'save' instead of 'saved', 'out' instead of 'without', 'hamfull', 'noval', and 'rigrous'. Despite these errors, the vocabulary is adequate to convey the intended meaning, and communication is only rarely impeded. These lexical limitations and errors reflect the characteristics of Band 5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting relative clauses and conditional structures. However, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent. There are several noticeable errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('there also have several limitations' and 'as in this is era AI'), incorrect prepositions or conjunction combinations ('Although... but...'), and word formation errors ('people intake such kind of proteins'). While these errors do not completely obscure the meaning, they are frequent enough to cause some difficulty for the reader and prevent the text from reaching a higher band, making Band 5 the most accurate descriptor.

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