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)
These days, many people with health issues are choosing alternative medicine rather than consulting their conventional doctors. I strongly believe this growing trend as a negative development due to the potential risks to patient safety and lack of scientific backing for many treatments.
The primary reason for this is because, alternative medicines such as homeopahy which includes ayurvedic medicine or accupunture have lesser evidence based practices or scientific backing. In contrast, allopathy medicines is the conventional, mainstream and evidence based medicine which is developed and practiced as a result of intesive research and trail. For example if a person delibrately decides to choose alternative medicine might worsen their health conditions due to lack of research recarding the medicine's possible side effects and contrindication.
The secondary drawback might be related to the potential risk to patients safety.For instance, a heart patient with possible blockage of artery might need emergency intervention. If that patient decides to try alternative medicine instead of getting appropriate treament could be fatal to the patient
In conclusion, the grwing trend to chose alternative medicines does have negative development because i
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0
The response presents a clear position that the trend is a negative development. However, the essay is incomplete, abruptly cutting off at the end due to the under-length issue. The official length requirement is a minimum of 250 words, whereas this response contains only 183 words. Consequently, the ideas are under-developed because the essay stops mid-sentence before a proper conclusion can be delivered. This places the response in Band 5 for Task Achievement, as the task is only partially addressed due to the severe length deficiency.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
The text demonstrates a basic organizational structure with an introduction, body paragraphs featuring distinct arguments, and an attempted conclusion. Logical connectors are used, such as 'The primary reason for this is because' and 'For instance'. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty, and paragraphing is disrupted by the incomplete nature of the response. The concluding paragraph fails to finish, which disrupts overall progression. Balancing these factors, the coherence and cohesion correspond to Band 5.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.0
The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, attempting some topic-specific terms like 'conventional doctors', 'evidence-based practices', and 'contraindication'. However, there are notable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, such as 'homeopahy' instead of homeopathy, 'accupunture' instead of acupuncture, 'intesive research and trail' instead of intensive research and trial, and 'recarding' instead of regarding. These lexical inaccuracies and limitations place the response firmly in Band 5.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0
The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as 'For example if a person delibrately decides to choose alternative medicine might worsen their health conditions...' which contains a significant structural error (missing subject/verb clause control). There are also punctuation and spelling errors ('grwing trend', 'treament'). While meaning is generally communicated in the body paragraphs, grammatical accuracy is inconsistent when attempting complex structures, fitting the Band 5 descriptors.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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