Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-30
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)
Due to the growth in number of disease and viruses,multiple individuals are suffering with health problems are experimenting or taking new alternative medicines and trying different treatments rather than meeting their usual doctor.As far as im concerned, this is a negetive development and reasons will be discussed in upcoming paragraphs along with some example.
The primary reason why i believe this is a negetive development is because visiting usual doctor is more beneficial as rather than trying new alternative medicines.To elaborate,visiting usual doctor will help them understand their health problems as those doctors have information about their regular patients regarding their usual health problems.However, trying an alternative medicines or treatments does not gurantee any solution and not all type of medicines can be consumable by everyone.For example, if someone is diagonised with breathing issues and starts taking alternative medicines which does not gurantee that those medicines will be digested safely by that person immune system.As a result, it does not solve the breathing issue but it does bring along some other diseases.
Talking about the other reasons,alternative medicines or treatments is not proven completely and have a low chance of success.To explain, alternative treatments and medicines does not have any verified certificate that it is completely safe.In addition, it puts the patients life on risk.Whereas,visiting usual doctors is much more safe as those doctors do have knowlegde regarding medicines and treatments.Usual doctors will first do some research and give medicines which have verified certificate and safe for health.Moreover, they will not provide any kind of medicines which put patients life on risks.
To conclude, multiple individuals are trying different treatments and alternative medicines rather than meeting with usual doctors as per rising in health problems.Its a negetive development as taking alternative or doing treatments which does not gurantee any solution and does not even have a verified certificate have a higher chance of risk.By meeting with usual doctor who have more knowledge about their patients and medicines will help solving their health problems than those alternative medicines
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.0 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0
The response addresses all parts of the task by taking a clear stance that turning to alternative medicine is a negative development. The position is maintained throughout the essay. Ideas are extended with reasons and examples, such as the mention of someone diagnosed with breathing issues. However, the development tends to be somewhat repetitive, particularly regarding the lack of verified certificates and safety risks, which keeps the response at Band 6.0. The ideas are relevant and support the overall argument, but they lack the deeper extension and nuance required for a Band 7.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0
The essay has a coherent overall arrangement with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate ideas. Cohesive devices are used, such as 'To elaborate,' 'For example,' and 'To conclude,' though some transitions feel a bit mechanical or repetitive. Referencing is generally clear, but occasional minor errors in referencing and cohesion prevent it from reaching a higher band. Overall, the logical progression is adequate for a Band 6.0.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
The student displays an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'alternative medicines,' 'diagonised,' and 'immunue system.' However, there are noticeable word-choice errors and spelling issues (e.g., 'im' instead of 'I', 'negetive' instead of 'negative', 'gurantee' instead of 'guarantee', 'knowlegde'). While these errors do not seriously impede communication, they reflect the characteristics of Band 5.0 or 6.0. Because the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the main arguments despite the inaccuracies, a Band 5.5 is appropriate.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0
The essay contains a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but control over grammar is inconsistent. There are frequent errors in article usage, prepositions, and subject-verb agreement, such as 'growth in number of disease and viruses,' 'suffering with health problems,' and 'puts the patients life on risk.' Punctuation errors, such as missing spaces after periods and commas, are also present. These errors occasionally cause difficulty for the reader and reflect a limited ability to consistently produce error-free complex sentences, aligning with Band 5.0.
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