Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-22

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)

Nowadays, more and more people with health issues are using alternative medicines and treatments instead of going their qualified doctors. I believe that this is a negative development.

One major disadvantage is that people are depend on alternative medicines such as old methods and herbal. An alternative method cannot effective the serious health issue. This is because some health issue require a proper treatment and professional advise.For example, a person with serious infection may become more ill if they only use herbal remedies instead of visiting a doctor. Moreover, old generation population are using old method cure products now because they did not accept this advance technology. As a result, continuing on herbal method can cause serious problems related to health instead of going doctors for proper treatments.

Another problem is that people are relay on only herbal remedies instead of choosing doctors advises. For instance, if a person suffer from serious health problem and then did not going to the doctors so he did not find his actual problem which leads to a major issue. Furthermore, thsi is the main point is not visiting their doctors and may continue different medicines that a financial background. In one country, most people can't afford the medical expences so their first priority is herbal medicines and significant numbers of treatments which costs less. Despite high cost, they choose contradicts medicines. Hence, they did not come to the doctor for diagnosed.

In conclusion, I believe that choosing alternative medicine instead of visiting doctors is harmful development because it can lead to ineffective treatment and delayed diagnosis.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt by taking a clear negative stance on the development of using alternative medicines instead of visiting doctors. Main ideas are presented, such as the risk of ineffective treatment and delayed diagnosis. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat repetitive and contains sweeping generalisations, such as claiming that 'an alternative method cannot effective the serious health issue' and referencing the 'old generation population' without specific expansion. Furthermore, some arguments become slightly confused when discussing financial backgrounds and costs in the third paragraph. While all parts of the task are addressed, the depth of support and extension places this performance firmly at Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction and conclusion, and the response is appropriately paragraphed. However, cohesion is frequently faulty and mechanical. The student relies heavily on repetitive transitional phrases and basic cohesive devices like 'Moreover', 'Another problem', and 'Furthermore'. Referencing is sometimes unclear, particularly with pronouns and ambiguous phrases like 'thsi is the main point is not visiting their doctors and may continue different medicines that a financial background'. The progression of ideas is also hindered by awkward phrasing and sentence structures, making the logical flow somewhat bumpy, which aligns with Band 5.5 descriptors.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The lexical resource is limited and displays noticeable errors. The student uses basic vocabulary alongside repeated words such as 'herbal', 'medicines', and 'doctors'. There are several word-choice and word-form errors that impede precision and occasionally obscure meaning, such as 'cannot effective' instead of 'cannot be effective', 'depend' instead of 'dependent', 'relay' instead of 'rely', and 'contradicts medicines'. Attempts to use less common vocabulary result in unnatural collocations. While the vocabulary is sufficient to convey a general meaning, the frequency of lexical errors prevents the response from achieving a Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The essay exhibits a limited range of grammatical structures, relying mostly on simple sentences and basic complex forms that frequently contain errors. There are numerous grammatical inaccuracies throughout the text, including subject-verb agreement issues ('people are depend', 'some health issue require'), tense inconsistencies ('did not going', 'suffer from'), and word-form errors ('thsi is the main point'). Punctuation and sentence construction errors are frequent and occasionally cause difficulty for the reader, such as the run-on sentence structure in the final paragraph. Because frequent errors persist and complex structures are often faulty, a Band 5.0 is appropriate.

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