Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-25

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, people are having various health problem. It is likely due to the consumption of junk foods and lack of exercises which is widely popular among teenagers. Many people stay on-home doing other activities rather having their checkups. Most likely, people are having alternative medicine in spite visiting the doctor.

Firstly, I will discuss this practice as a negative development. It is obviously the age of science and technology and it provides accurate health conditions regarding individual issues. People are prefering alternative remedies visiting the sadhu's and being fully dependent on them. In this modern era, this habit will likely affect in the future and can even take the life of people. For example, my grandfather told me that there was a practice of dhami-jhakri for the people bitten by snake where people went for treatment due to greed of money. In that case, many people have lost their lives. Moreover, it directly affect the development of a country. The peoples in the country who take alternative medicine are likely to suffer from severe health problem. This will likely have a negative perception toward specialized doctors who are always been providing better facilities to their patients.

Furthermore, this has huge impact on personal life. So the effort should be carried out by concerned authorities in a timely manner. This severe case can be handled by educating public, and by lessening the doctor's charge for low-income individual families.

To sum up, this case definitely doesn't have positive impacts. So, individual must be responsible for their own circumstances. It is better to be far away from such hazardous treatment rather than taking it less-concerning.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The writer addresses the prompt by clearly taking a position that alternative medicine is a negative development. Ideas are presented, such as the dangers of relying on untrained practitioners like 'dhami-jhakri' and the impact on a country's development. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited and lacks consistent depth. For instance, the transition to personal life and government solutions in the third paragraph is abrupt and underdeveloped. The position is maintained throughout, but some arguments tend to overgeneralise, such as claiming that taking alternative medicine will 'take the life of people' without sufficient balance. These shortcomings place the response at a Band 5.5 to 6.0 level; it fully satisfies Band 5 by addressing the task and presenting a clear position, but pushes slightly into Band 6 features through its clear negative stance.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The essay displays a basic structural organization with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is attempted, although some paragraphs are quite brief or disjointed, particularly the standalone single-sentence paragraph in the body. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'Firstly', 'Moreover', and 'To sum up', but their application can be mechanical and repetitive. Referencing is occasionally unclear, as seen in phrases like 'this case definitely doesn't have positive impacts' where the exact antecedent is ambiguous. Overall, the arrangement provides a coherent flow, but the faulty cohesion and mechanical transitions keep it anchored at Band 5.0.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The lexical resource is limited and adequate for basic communication. The student uses some appropriate vocabulary related to the topic, such as 'health problems', 'alternative medicine', and 'specialized doctors'. However, there are noticeable word-choice and collocation errors throughout the text, such as 'people are having various health problem' instead of 'having health problems' or 'suffering from health issues', and 'greed of money' instead of 'financial motives'. Attempts to use more advanced vocabulary lead to inaccuracies, such as 'hazardous treatment rather than taking it less-concerning'. These errors cause occasional strain for the reader, aligning the vocabulary performance with Band 5.0 descriptors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over basic structures. However, frequent grammatical errors occur throughout the text. Examples include subject-verb agreement issues like 'The peoples in the country who take...', preposition errors such as 'stay on-home' and 'affect in the future', and awkward tense usage like 'people are having various health problem'. Punctuation is generally basic, and complex structures frequently contain errors that cause difficulty for the reader. These persistent inaccuracies across a limited range of structures warrant a Band 5.0.

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