Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-23
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)
It is considered that the many individuals with health concern are using substitue medicines and therapy rather than visiting their regular doctors.Although ths treatmentmay provide some benefits.But i believe that this is a negative development because they can be ineffective and delay proper medical treatment.
To begin with, one advantage of alternative mediceine is that, some treatments can can help people manage their health problems. practices such as accupunture message and herbal mediine may reduce stress, anixety and other mild synptoms. Additionally, alternative treatment are sometime more affordable and can be beneficial for people who can not not afford to visit doctor frequent, therefore, this can be use as a complementry treatment when used carefully.
Futhermore, relaying on alternative medicine create serious issue. Fistly, many alternative cure do not scientific evidence to prove that they can treat particular disease, as a result, patients may spend a considerable amount of time and money that are ineffective. Secondly, avoiding doctors causes serios illness to remain undiogones, For instance, a patient might have chest problem, serious skin disease and heart issue use herbal medicine instead of consulting a doctors might harmful because it can spread around while interacting with other individuals if dose not trat in a period of time.
In conclusion, although alternative madicine can be helpful in some minor conditions and may offer several benefits. But i belive that people need to visit doctors for proper diagonese treatment because they examine with medical machines for easy treatment without any pain and proper hygiene
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
The response addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the potential benefits and the drawbacks of alternative medicines before clearly stating a negative position. Ideas are relevant, noting that alternative treatments can help manage mild symptoms or offer affordability, but arguing that they lack scientific backing and can delay proper diagnosis. However, some arguments lack full extension and are slightly repetitive, such as the underdeveloped examples regarding chest and skin issues in the third paragraph. Overall, the task is adequately fulfilled, placing the response firmly at Band 6.0.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The essay is arranged into a coherent overall structure with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Progression is visible through standard cohesive markers such as 'To begin with', 'Furthermore', and 'In conclusion'. However, referencing and cohesion are sometimes faulty or mechanical, and the punctuation errors in sentence boundaries—such as the fragment 'Although ths treatment may provide some benefits. But i believe...'—disrupt the flow. Paragraphing is present, but internal logical transitions can be clumsy, leading to a Band 6.0 performance.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The student demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common terms such as 'complementary', 'alternative', and 'diagnosis'. However, there are numerous spelling and word-choice errors throughout the text, including 'substitue' instead of substitute, 'mediceine', 'accupunture', 'message' instead of massage, 'mediine', 'anixety', 'synptoms', 'relaying' instead of relying, and 'undiogones'. While these errors do not completely impede communication, their frequency prevents the score from rising above a Band 5.0.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
A mix of simple and complex sentence forms is attempted, but control over grammar and punctuation is inconsistent. There are frequent basic errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ('alternative treatment are'), missing prepositions, and severe punctuation errors that create sentence fragments (e.g., starting sentences with 'Although...' followed immediately by 'But i believe...'). Other structural awkwardness appears in phrases like 'people who can not not afford to visit doctor frequent'. These errors cause occasional difficulty for the reader, placing the grammar score at Band 5.0.
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