Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-21

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 5.0)

Nowadays, a growing number of people with health problems are trying out alternative medicines and treatments instead of getting checked up from their usuall doctor. I think it has both positive and negative outcomes.

As a human being are not immunie to dieseases, we get sick occasionally due to bad diet and even worse routine. Most of us have visits the same docter everytime they feel sick or when something happenes to them, visiting the same docter can be helpfull because he knows where exactly the problem lies. Most of the famouse identies have their private doctor, they go through alot of health issue and visiting new doctor everytime is not efficient. Let's see this through a practical example, if we are building a car, in the middle of process we subject our whole work to someone else, by doing so the result won't be as positive as it would've been with the same person. That's the reason there is only 1 coach of a team.

Similarly, with all the positive developments there are some negative coutcomes too. If a person visits the same doctor everytime, the doctor naturally thinks that maybe he got the same problem the last time and because of this alot of things are ignored and can result in future. For example, I always go to the same doctor, since i was 13. One day I had very severe pain in my throat, I went to the same docter as usuall and without checking he said that you have high fewer. I went through a lot just because he didn't checked properly.

In conclusion, I would say that we should go to the same doctor when we have some minor issue but also changing the doctor regularly for more efficient check on our health.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.0
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.0

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response attempts to discuss a balanced view on visiting doctors versus alternative treatments, though the student actually focuses heavily on the pros and cons of visiting the same doctor versus changing doctors repeatedly, which slightly misinterprets the core prompt about alternative medicines. Despite this slight shift in focus, the writer presents a clear position and supports it with personal examples, such as visiting the same doctor since age 13. Ideas are introduced and expanded upon, but the tangent regarding doctors rather than alternative medicines limits higher development. Therefore, the task response is partially addressed, warranting a band 5.5.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The essay is organised into recognizable paragraphs with a clear introduction and conclusion. However, logical progression between sentences is sometimes hindered by abrupt shifts and awkward transitions, such as 'Let's see this through a practical example...' and 'Similarly, with all the positive developments...'. Cohesive devices are occasionally inaccurate or mechanical. Paragraphing is present, but body paragraphs mix distinct ideas together rather than maintaining a clear single focus. Referencing is sometimes unclear, particularly with pronoun use. This represents a solid band 5.0 level of coherence.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, though it features notable spelling and word-choice errors, such as 'usuall' instead of 'usual', 'immunie' instead of 'immune', 'dieseases' instead of 'diseases', 'docter' instead of 'doctor', and 'fewer' instead of 'fever'. Less common vocabulary is attempted with limited success ('famouse identies', 'efficient'). While communication is not severely impeded, these noticeable errors in spelling and collocation place the lexical resource firmly at a band 5.0 level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer employs a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but control over grammar and punctuation is inconsistent. There are frequent grammatical errors, such as 'As a human being are not immunie', 'Most of us have visits the same docter', and 'without checking he said that you have high fewer'. Subject-verb agreement issues and tense inconsistencies are common throughout the text. While the meaning remains mostly clear despite these slips, the high frequency of errors prevents the response from reaching a higher band, making a 5.0 score appropriate.

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

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