Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-29

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)

Since ancient times people tried to treat themselves by herbals and another natural products. In these days this type of treatment is named as alternative medicine. Nowadays, more and more people with some diseases decide to use alternative medicines instead of classic medicine. In this essay I will try to discuss pros and cons.

In my opinion, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages of using traditional medicine. The first reason is that nobody knows how this treatment will affect to a person's health. There are a lot of cases when using different herbals caused allergic reaction and some people dead. The next reason is that people who do not have any medical education try alternative medicines. They do not know what the result will be and hope that it will be positive but not always is like that.

Although there are a lot of disadvantages, advantages might make people not go to usual doctor. The first and the main pro is that using herbals does not cause environmental problems such as air pollution or gas waste. Many pharmaceutical plants use chemicals which have harmful affect on the environment. The other reason is that alternative medicines are usually much cheaper than usual treatment as you do not have to go to pharmacy and buy expensive drugs.

To sum it up, the alternative treatment will be forever because it has some advantages which many people think that they can outweigh the disadvantages but I do not think so. The conventional medicine which develops rocketly will drive out other types of treatment in the future.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response addresses the prompt directly, presenting an opinion that the disadvantages of alternative medicine outweigh the advantages. The writer outlines a clear position throughout the essay. Ideas are presented, such as the lack of medical education among practitioners and the environmental benefits of herbal remedies, though some arguments remain somewhat under-developed and rely on generalisations, such as claiming that 'some people dead' or that conventional medicine will drive out alternatives. While the support is adequate for a basic exploration, it falls short of the fully extended and well-supported ideas required for higher bands. Therefore, the task achievement aligns well with the Band 6 descriptors.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The essay displays a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs addressing distinct points, and a conclusion. Paragraphing is utilised appropriately to separate ideas. However, cohesion is at times mechanical or faulty, as seen with transitions like 'The first reason', 'The next reason', and 'The other reason', which show a somewhat repetitive structure. Referencing is occasionally ambiguous, and cohesive devices are not always used with high flexibility. This level of organisation and logical progression fits comfortably within the Band 6 criteria.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to communicate ideas about health, traditional medicine, and environmental impact. There are noticeable lexical errors and awkward collocations, such as 'classic medicine' instead of 'conventional or mainstream medicine', 'affected to' instead of 'affected', and 'rocketly' instead of 'rapidly'. The writer attempts some less common vocabulary like 'environmental problems' and 'pharmaceutical plants', but inaccuracies in word choice prevent the writing from achieving a higher band. The lexical resource is characteristic of a Band 5.5 or Band 6 response, and is best placed at 5.5 due to recurrent collocation issues.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, incorporating relative clauses and conditional structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including prepositional errors ('affected to a person's health'), subject-verb agreement issues ('is not always like that'), and lexical-grammatical confusion ('some people dead' instead of 'died'). While these errors do not severely impede overall comprehension, their frequency prevents the majority of sentences from being error-free. This structural variety combined with persistent inaccuracy matches the Band 5 descriptors.

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